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Period: to
transportation change
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Water Transport
Steamboats became the first major advances in water transportation. Rober Fulton first tested a steam-engine driven boat on the Hudson River in 1807 and within fiteen years, steamboats had proliferated to the point of reducing the cost of upriver molbility by over 90 percent. -
Canals
Canal in early America
Canals enabled rivers to be moved and redirected. The Erie Canal--Americas first great feat of engineering- was 364 miles long, flowing from Albany to Buffalo, New York. -
Web Field Trip
Lockport on the Erie Canal
A canal-building boon ensued. Not to be outdone, Pennsylvaia and Maryland launched their own canal-building ventures and other states soon folllowed. By 1840 there were 3000 miles of canals in place in the nation, laying the foundation for a national market. -
John Bull
Used on the Camden and Amboy Railraod in New Jerseym 1831
But railraods also heightened sectional differences. Before the widespread use of railraods and canals, most western trade went downriver to New Orleans. -
Railraods
The DeWit Clinton on the Mohawk and Husdon Railway between Albany and Schenectady, 1831
Railraods completed what the canals had begun, trying the United States together economically. The construction of the first railraods begam in American in the 1820s, pushing outward from the Eastern seaboard to the wester inerior. By 1840, railraod mileage equaled that of canals but the railraod was faster, more flexible, and more reliable, and soon surpassed canals as Americas favorite.
