Technology Advances in Antebellum America
Technology Advances in Antebellum America
The Era of 1800 to 1860 proved to be some of the most technologically advanced years of the 19th century. This Era saw a rapid technological change in communications, travel. Through these advances helped the United States grow and prosper. Communication was now possible from the most populated to the least populated areas of the country. Telegraph wires stretched from north to south and east to west. The introduction of the Pony Express allowed the physical movement of mail from the east to as far west as California and as far North as Wyoming. Transportation was at its heyday, via water, rail or land, people moved across the country faster than any other time in history. This era showed the citizens that any dream was possible. In just a matter of a few decades, the entire landscape of the United States changed. The most significant advancement in this period was in travel.
What the United States needed was improvement on its way of travel. In John Stover’s American Railroads “Both Albert Gallatin in 1808 and John Calhoun a decade later stressed canals as well as improved roads, in their plans for internal improvements. Canals are built slowly, and in 1817 when Calhoun made his pleas for a perfect system of transportation only about 100 miles of canals had been constructed “(p5) By the 1830 is was estimated that 1300 miles of inland waterways were already in use and another eight to ten thousand miles were projected. The country was going from a turnpike era to the Canal Age. In October of 1825 the 364 mile Erie Canal opened. It was then possible to travel from New York to Chicago, and from Chicago all points west. In Floating West, Bourne extols the virtue of canals. Basically, it is a simplistic way of moving people, raw and finished goods from one point to another. A canal is basically a ditch, filled with water, with towpaths on both banks.
A flat bottom barge was loaded and tow lines were attached
The Era of 1800 to 1860 proved to be some of the most technologically advanced years of the 19th century. This Era saw a rapid technological change in communications, travel. Through these advances helped the United States grow and prosper. Communication was now possible from the most populated to the least populated areas of the country. Telegraph wires stretched from north to south and east to west. The introduction of the Pony Express allowed the physical movement of mail from the east to as far west as California and as far North as Wyoming. Transportation was at its heyday, via water, rail or land, people moved across the country faster than any other time in history. This era showed the citizens that any dream was possible. In just a matter of a few decades, the entire landscape of the United States changed. The most significant advancement in this period was in travel.
What the United States needed was improvement on its way of travel. In John Stover’s American Railroads “Both Albert Gallatin in 1808 and John Calhoun a decade later stressed canals as well as improved roads, in their plans for internal improvements. Canals are built slowly, and in 1817 when Calhoun made his pleas for a perfect system of transportation only about 100 miles of canals had been constructed “(p5) By the 1830 is was estimated that 1300 miles of inland waterways were already in use and another eight to ten thousand miles were projected. The country was going from a turnpike era to the Canal Age. In October of 1825 the 364 mile Erie Canal opened. It was then possible to travel from New York to Chicago, and from Chicago all points west. In Floating West, Bourne extols the virtue of canals. Basically, it is a simplistic way of moving people, raw and finished goods from one point to another. A canal is basically a ditch, filled with water, with towpaths on both banks.
A flat bottom barge was loaded and tow lines were attached
Cited: Bloss, Roy A. Pony Express – the Great Gamble. California: Howell-North Press,1959. Bourne, Russell. Floating West the Erie & Other American Canals. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1992. Brinkley, Alan. American History A Survey Volume 1. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 13th Edition. Coe, Lewis. The Telegraph. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc, 1993. Drago, Harry Sinclair. Canal Days in America. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc, 1972. Georgano, G.N. Transportation through the Ages. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972. Havighurst, Walter. Voices On the River. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1964. Stover, John F. American Railroads. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1961. Volo, James M., and Dorothy Deneen Volo. The Antebellum Period. Westport, Connecticut. Greenwood Press, 2004.