19th Century Transportation

Some form of transportation has always been used in people's’ daily lives, from hunters in the Stone Age to people now with jobs or vacations. The used of transportation has changed drastically also; now we travel for leisure but thousands of years ago, travel was mainly just for survival. During the Antebellum Period, transportation accelerated industrialization by moving goods and people quickly, efficiently, and cheaply. “Transportation was the most important business in the 19th century,” T.J Stiles told “History”. “When opportunities presented themselves, they almost always were in transportation.” At the time, America’s economy was growing at tremendous rates with industrialization spreading feverishly in the North. Americans living there had access to crops from the South at a cheaper price, while those in the South could purchase farming tools for cheaper prices because of the little effort needed to transport items. The major influential Americans who were responsible for major improvements and innovations of transportation were Cornelius Vanderbilt, Dewitt Clinton, and John Loudon McAdam. They revolutionized America’s railways, canals, and turnpikes. Cornelius Vanderbilt, born in 1794, was a powerful businessman who controlled America’s railroads. He was known as a railroad baron, owning 13 major railroads in America, dominating the New York City to Great Lakes area. He was a brilliant man who had the talent to see things’ great potential. “He took these small little railroad lines and began to take them over, to merge them, to connect them and convert them into large, almost continental straddling networks,” says T.J. Stiles, a Vanderbilt Biographer. “Railroads allowed America to push west and farms grew rapidly where they went. This allowed for more raw materials to be produced, and then brought to the northern factories on the trains, greatly improving America's economy. (Brinkley, 255-257)(“Transportation” 2011).” The populating west provided many opportunities for risk seeking individuals who wanted a chance to become rich fast, one of the opportunities being the famed Gold Rush. Not only did railroads power many industries, they themselves were a very big industry. Trains and rail required large amounts of iron and wood to construct, causing the demand in iron and lumber industries to skyrocket. Cornelius Vanderbilt was born into poverty, however his lifelong involvement with railroads has an everlasting legacy in American history. Besides means of travelling …show more content…
Canals are narrow and long channels of water that were typically man made. One of the most famous waterways was the Erie Canal proposed by a politician and naturalist, DeWitt Clinton. It spans from Albany to Lake Erie using the Mohawk River and few other small rivers to transport small boats pulled by mule or oxen on either side. Eventually, steam boat technology progressed enough, allowing them to float in the 4 foot deep canal. Once the 40 foot wide canal was dug, it connected large river systems, ultimately allowing many cities access to the Empire State, otherwise known as New York. Not only was the Erie Canal “providing an economic boost by allowing the transport of goods at one-tenth the previous cost in less than half the previous time,” it brought prosperity to regions around the canal, something the railroads were not capable of (Klein 2016). Additionally, it was used heavily to transport ideas. Many thoughts about women’s suffrage, anti-slavery, religion, also traveled this 364 mile