Transportation Revolution

See a Need, Fill a Need.

Not to steal from that movie, but the quote does do a great job of explaining the connection between the Transportation Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.

The mills of Lowell and the Northeast all required a large supple of raw materials.  Raw materials are goods such as: cotton, wheat, coal and grain.  These natural resources were essential to the survival of the factories and mills in the country.  As a result there was a demand to have these goods.  Politicians and businessmen sought out ways to provide a method to get those goods to the people in the Northeast.   

At the same time the nation was expanding.  People in the West and the South needed manufactured goods.  Products made in factories of the North were in demand in the South and West where there were little to no factories.  Many called for new ways of getting goods across the nation.

       In class we talked about the different methods that were used to move goods from place to place. The goal with each method was always to lower the cost and to have it done faster.   Some would be more efficient and faster then others.    As technology improved so would the means of travel.

The first method of moving goods was through roads.  Private corporations and states would pay for the construction of roads in different parts of the country.  While roads linked towns and cities they were also unreliable.  Tree stumps, large rocks, mud, and roots would often give the passengers of wagons a rough ride while increasing the travel time.  

Rivers provided some towns and cities with a reliable way of moving people and goods.  Some towns were not near a body of water so canals were constructed.  Canals linked cities to larger rivers, such as the Mississippi.  Once connected to the Ohio, Mississippi, or Missouri Rivers, that city would have access to other major ports across the world.  Travel time was reduced and the price of goods from the East would drop.  People on the East Coast would now have access to cotton, rice, corn, and tobacco from the Southern and Western parts of the nation.

Hopefully you can describe for me the Positive and Negative Results of the following Transportation methods:

Steamboats, Clipper Ships, and Railroads.

Without the demand for goods created by the Industrial Revolution there would be no rapid change in transportation.

Have a good weekend.