Growth of communication and transport infrastructure in the

Growth of communication and transport infrastructure in the US during the 19 th Century A look at the development of: • Roads • Waterborne Transport • The Pony Express • The Telegraph • The Telephone

Development of transport and communications • Westward expansion and the growth of the United States during the 19 th century sparked a need for a better transportation infrastructure. • In the early 1800 s, as the United states began to grow, there was no transport infrastructure: in the East, the economy depended on imports from Europe. The West had no efficient way to export goods over the Appalachian Mountains. • At the beginning of the century, U. S. citizens and immigrants to the country travelled primarily by horseback or on the rivers. • After a while, crude roads were built and then canals. • Before long the railroads criss-crossed the country moving people and goods with greater efficiency. • Alongside this came the development of the Telegraph and Telephone • Taken together, these caused distinct regional economies to form and, by the turn of the century, a national economy.

Roads • In the early 1800 s, State and local governments had small bureaucracies and limited budgets which prevented substantial public sector road building. Private “Turnpikes” were business corporations that built and maintained a road for the right to collect fees from travellers. • From 1792 – 1845 about 15, 000 miles of roads were operated by about 850 companies, average length 18 -20 miles. The National Road • The Cumberland Road, also known as the National Road, was the first road in the history of the United States funded by the federal government. • President Thomas Jefferson promoted the road to support westward expansion and unify the developing nation. Controversial at the time, people questioned whether the Constitution even allowed for Federal funding of a national road. Congress authorized its construction which began in 1811. • By the 1840 s the 620 -mile National Road ran from Cumberland, Maryland to St Louis Missouri.

Eastern United States

Waterborne Transport • The Erie canal, the first built in the United States, was built from 1817 -25. Despite opposition from President Thomas Jefferson in the early 1800 s (“little short of madness”), it was supported by NY Governor De. Witt Clinton. Running 363 miles and with 34 locks from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes, it was the second longest canal in the world after the Grand Canal in China. Freight was pulled by horses or mules on a tow-path. • The Erie canal was a major economic artery through New York state. It’s economic success sparked a wave of canal building across the United States. By 1840, there were 3, 326 miles of canals. • The first commercially successful steamboat, the Clermont, built by Robert Fulton, was tested on the Hudson River in 1807. Steamboats were soon introduced on most navigable rivers. By 1830, steamboats dominated American river transportation. • Steamboats contributed greatly to the economy throughout the eastern part of the United States as a means of transporting agricultural and industrial supplies. Between 1814 and 1834, New Orleans steamboat arrivals increased from 20 to 1, 200. These boats transported passengers, as well as cargoes of cotton, sugar, and other goods. The Clermont (1909 replica)

The Pony Express • The Pony Express was a postal service delivering messages, newspapers, and mail using relays of horse-mounted riders that operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. • The idea of a fast mail route to the Pacific Coast was prompted largely by California's newfound prominence and its rapidly growing population following the discovery of gold there in 1848. • The founders of the Pony Express hoped to win an exclusive government mail contract, but that did not come about and the business collapsed after only 18 months. • By using a short route and mounted riders rather than traditional stagecoaches letters were delivered across the continent in only 10 days, which many at the time said was impossible. • William Cody, aka “Buffalo Bill” was one of the first riders.

The Telegraph • The first truly revolutionary development of the 19 th century was the telegraph, which greatly accelerated how fast the written word could be spread. • Developed during 1830 s and 1840 s by Samuel Morse and others with funding from the US government, in 1844, Morse, the inventor of the first practical telegraph, sent the first message, called a telegram, from Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D. C. using the coding scheme he invented, now called Morse code. • By 1845, the first money order was sent as a telegram. In just 6 years, 12, 000 miles of telegraph cable had been laid and by 1860, the telegraph was in most cities east of the Rocky Mountains, and by 1864, Western Union had connected the East to California and the Pacific Northwest, making it the first nationwide telegraph company. In 1867, the telegraph connected America to Europe using a cable on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. • Railroads, the newspapers, and the stock markets benefited from this development in particular.

The Telephone • Various people began thinking about the concept of what is now called a telephone around the mid-1800 s but it only began to take off when Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell patented it in 1876 at the age of 29. • Initially, the telephone only supported groups of customers in local areas such as towns or counties. Several years were required to establish a complete telephone system, particularly the necessary telephone exchange. • The Bell Telephone Company was started in 1877 and a subsidiary, AT&T, started in 1885. Originating in New York, its long-distance telephone network reached Chicago by 1892, but it did not reach the East coast until 1915. AT&T was the largest corporation in the world for much of the 20 th Century. The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876