TRANSPORTATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, AND TECHNLOLOGY

CANAL AGE1790 1820s Turnpike age, roads relied on for transportation Mississippi and Ohio important early rover transportation routes Little more than rafts going down river Became more important in 1820s Steamboats grew in number; improved design Transported corn & wheat (NORTH) and cotton and tobacco(SOUTH) to New Orleans more quickly No one is happy More expensive then shipping directly east Couldnt ship as many goods over river/sea route New mountain highways partial solution canals = alternative shipping route four horses could move 1.5 tons 18 miles a day over highway, yoked to barges next to canals they could move 100 tons 24 mils a day canal digging too expensive for private digging, fell to states New York first to act when De Witt Clinton became governor 1817 Digging began July 4, 1817 Erie Canal opened October 1825 Provided path to great lakes, opening New York trading to Chicago and the West. New York could now compete with New Orleans as trading destination of the West. Ohio and Indiana connect Ohio River with Lake Erie Canals led to large increase of white western settlement

Other Cities alarmed by New Yorks trading advantage

Boston Blocked by Berkshire Mountains, didnt even attempt to connect to west by water Philadelphia and Baltimore blocked by Allegany Mountains Made effort; failed Maryland constructed part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1828, only got from Cumberland Maryland to Washington D.C. Richmond and Charleston also start water routes but never complete them. Everyone failed at trying to rival New York

THE EARLY RAILROADSRailroads played secondary role in 1820s & 1830s 1804 both Americans and Englishmen had experimented with steam powered land vehicles 1820 John Stevens ran locomotive and cars around his NJ estate 1825 the Stockton and Darlington Railroad opened in England on a small track; first railroad to carry passengers First Company to begin actual operation Baltimore and Ohio Opened 13 mile track in 1830 In New York the Mohawk and Hudson began running trains the sixteen miles from Schenectady to Albany in 1831. By 1836 more than a thousand miles of tracks had been lain by 11 states. In 1830s no unified system, scheduling chaotic, railroads mostly didnt go to one another Improvements being made, heavier rails and improved train design. Railroads and Canals start competing bitterly. Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company blocked Baltimore and Ohio railroads from going through a narrow gorge they controlled in the upper Potomac. New York prohibited railroads from hauling freight.

TRIUMPH OF THE RAILS-

Railroads gradually replaces other transportation 1840s In 1840 there were 2,818 miles of tracks In 1850 there were 9,021 1850s burst of construction, tripling amount of trackage. Best System used by Northeast Twice as much trackage as Northwest Four times as much as in south Railroads going as far as Hannibal to St Joseph, another under construtsion from St. Louis to Kansas City By 1853 four major trunk(longer lines which shorter ones fed into) lines crossed Appalachian Barrier to connect Northeast to Northwest. The New York Central and New York and Erie gave New York accesses to Lake Erie ports. Pennsylvania Railroad linked Philadelphia and Pittsburg. Baltimore and Ohio connected Baltimore with Ohio river at Wheeling Chicago became the rail center of the West. Funding for railroads came from many places Both Private investors and local government In 1850 Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and others persuaded Congress to financially aid Illinois Central(went from Chicago towards Gulf of Mexico) Other states demanded same privileges, by 1860 congress had allotted 30 million acres to eleven states for railroad construction

INNOVATIONS IN COMMUNICATIONS AND JOURNALISMTelegraphs allowed for communications between train stations for scheduling Allowed almost instant communication between far distances Telegraph came into use in 1844 when Samuel F.B. Morse succeeded in a transmission from Baltimore to Washington. Telegraphs were not expensive, making them the ideal long range from of communication. By 1860 more than 50,000 miles of wire connected most of the country A year later the Pacific telegraph spanned the 3,595 miles between San Francisco and New York. Most independent lines had joined Union Telegraph Company

1846 Richard Hoe invented the steam cylinder rotary press allowing for newspapers to be printed more quickly and cheaply. in 1846 the nation formed the Associated Press, allowed the gathering of news to be more unified, no more newspaper exchange, everything was sent by telegraph Major Newspapers began to appear in larger cities in the Northeast New York: Horace Geedlys Tribune; James Gordon Bennets herald; Henry J. Raymonds Times. Northern Newspapers led to bad feelings in the South; Southern Newspapers were smaller and more local with a much smaller budget, the combined circulation of the Herald and Tribune exceeded that of the entire souths papers.