The Transportation Revolution

• state and federally sponsored infrastructure projects link producers to markets

  • highways

  • canals

Canals

• Erie canal, 1825

• 350 mile “artificial river”

• Lake Erie to Hudson river

• northwest territory tied to NYC international markets

• upstate NY rapidly transformed, NY state becomes country’s economic center

• national canal-building boom follows, usually with government sponsorship

Steamboats

• first commercial line, 1807, Hudson river

• rivers were 2-way routes

• speed and power drastically increased “the annihilation of time and space”

• key to growth of Mississippi Valley and first western cities

Railroads

• began around the same time, but grew more slowly

• first long-distance line, Baltimore and Ohio, 1827

• government-sponsored like canals

• coal gradually replaced wood which led to first large-scale use of fossil fuels