Transport in US cities, 19th and early 20th centuries – discuss. Usual rules apply…five hundred words, outside sources are fine, but must be cited…
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Transport in US cities, 19th and early 20th centuries – discuss. Usual rules apply…five hundred words, outside sources are fine, but must be cited…
All the bairns o' Adam 
Reblogged this on All for class and commented:
It was during the late 19th century through the mid-20th century that the population in the U.S. urban areas began to boom! Most the “population growth [was due] to the expansion of industry, U.S. cities grew by about 15 million people in two decades before 1900” (city life in the late 19th Century. http://www.loc.gov). From 1800-1890 typical means of getting around a city was on foot. These “walking” cities were typically less than 5 kilometers in diameter. This made traversing the city on foot somewhat easy. With the influx of immigration and the steady stream of people from rural America caused the need for public transport (people.hofsra.edu). It started with the horse drawn streetcars but quickly moved to more reliable and faster modes of transport. This started with “the invention of the grip cable in the 1870s and of electric traction in the late 1880s” (lib.uchicago.edu). London is contributed to implementing the first modern subway system in 1863. New York, whose population was soaring, took a different approach; building four steam-powered elevated railroads in 1868 (lib.uchicago.edu) By the 1890s New York City moved to a cleaner electric system. All the way up to the 1920s there were less than 20 major cities worldwide that used subway systems due to the expenses and time it took to build them. It was the street rail systems that remained the backbone of transportation in urban areas in the United States.
The very first electric trolley line opened in 1888 in Richmond, Virginia (people.hofstra.edu). Electric streetcars were much faster and cheaper to operate then the horse drawn cars and clearly much cleaner to operate. The electric street cars started to allow for urban sprawl to take place. “Cities spread outward 20 to 30 kilometers along streetcar lines”… and “reducing density from 100-200 people per hectare to 50 and 100” (people.hofstra.edu). This also reflected social stratification in land use patterns in an urban setting. With the rise of public transportation the middle class began to move out of the city center and into suburban areas. All the while the working class who could not afford the transit system remand in the city centers within walking distance to their place of work.
Let’s not forget to mention water transportation. Transportation via water ways was absolutely pivotal to the success of New York City decades. Until John Roebling designed the Brooklyn Bridge was the first link between Long Island and Manhattan in 1883. The Brooklyn Bridge along with the Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge were only used by trolley cars and remand as such until the 1920s.
It is interesting to see the evolution of public transit during the 19th and early 20th century. It happened rather quickly. In the span of four decades we see the move from steam boats and horse drawn streetcars to elevated steam operated rail systems. The subway system in New York City had to of been an absolute monster to try and tackle, the city being only feet above sea level!
Nice work, worldtravels14–good use of historical research and how numerical distance tied in to how transport changed.
Very nice work, I especially like the discussion of transport and social stratification.
American cities following the industrial revolution were greatly influenced by new modes of transportation. One framework, Borchert’s Transportation Epoch, describes two of these periods in 19th and early 20th century as the “regional” and “national railroad.” Borchert’s framework uses modes or types of transportation to describe the morphology of cities. These two periods followed the “Horse and Wagon” period of 1790-1830. The first railroad period is a result of the steam engine being inserted into carts and the first set of local and regional tracks laid. This period, from about 1830-1870, saw the first rail hubs spring up in existing cities that connected them to their hinterlands. Railways were a way to connect expanding hinterlands and the good produced there to the steamboat traffic that allowed the goods to be shipped out to the rest of the country. The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 helped expand the influence of railways. These pieces of legislation gave railroad companies large swaths of land on either side of any track they laid heading west. As one professor told me, “Railroad companies were not in the business of making railroads. They were in the real estate business.” (J. Gaber, 2.6.14) This allowed the railroad business become highly profitable. It is at this time that the country shifted to the national railroad period. Here cities with major rail hubs, like Chicago, Minneapolis, and Atlanta, grew rapidly. The expansion of the national railroad system dictated the growth of particular cities that before did not have a particular reason to develop so intensely. With their growth came the agglomeration of services. In Chicago the field of architecture produced some of the most important innovations, technically and theoretical, and architects of the 20th century. Around this time the Chicago School emerged. Championed by Louis Sullivan, the theory focused in the construction and expression of tall buildings. Tall buildings were, until the sky rocketing prices of land near central business districts, not much of a building type; often very confused about how to deal with a building of such tall proportions. Sullivan re-applied the three classic building elements (base, middle, and top) to the tower. The middle was stretched and would use vertical bands, instead of horizontal bands, to express its tallness (the Carson Pirie Scott building is a good example). These were groundbreaking advancements in the field of architecture and are the product of a local network of trams (Chicago, Minneapolis) and subways (New York) that focused around the central business districts. Oddly, these local rail systems are both responsible for high levels of vertical density and an expanding sphere of horizontal influence of the city. Wealthy families fled the city centers because of worsening living conditions. The industrial revolution had produced great amounts of pollution and overcrowding for working class families. The dispersal of wealthy families via local train networks led to another new form of design – the planning and development of suburbs. New city models sprang up around the edges of city centers; Radburn, New Jersey and Riverside near Chicago are good examples of these highly planned communities. These new ways of planning, designing, working, and living were all largely indebted to the use of new modes of rail transportation.
Very nice discussion of both transportation and architecture.
Reblogged this on jwpruss and commented:
Urban transport in the cities of the Unites States predates the automobile. Some of the earliest forms of public transportation were actually stagecoaches. Now, obviously we don’t see stagecoaches running from Downtown to Uptown in New York City today.
The incline railway in the photo is the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh’s Southside and scales Mt. Washington. It was originally built to carry cargo up the mountain and then later was used by residents of Mt. Washington who didn’t want to have to climb the stairways to the top. Today it is merely a tourist attraction.
The Chicago L is one of the largest rapid transit systems in the United States. It was started in 1892 with locomotives pulling wooden carriages. The L originally did not access the central business district of Chicago. Thanks to the efforts of Charles Tyson Yerkes, the L service was extended into Downtown Chicago on tracks that were elevated over the city streets. The route eventually made a loop around Downtown and that’s where we get the name of the “Chicago Loop.” The system is one of the oldest continually operating mas transit systems in the United States and has stood the test of time and Mother Nature.
The streetcar systems of the United States were numerous at the turn of the 20th century. Virtually every major city had a system. The streetcar has its roots in the omnibuses and horse cars of the mid 1800s. Horsecars were merely just wagons that ran on rails and were pulled by horses. The New Orleans system started as a horsecar system and its streetcar system is the oldest operating system in the US and is virtually unchanged from its beginnings. The last regular mule-drawn cars in the US ran in Sulphur Rock, AR until 1926 (Sulphur Rock web).
With the advent of the electrical power system, streetcar systems began to be electrified with the first being in South Bend, IN in 1882 (Downtown web). Some systems rain off a cable system that pulled the cars by cable. The most famous and still operating example of such a system is in San Francisco. The steep hills made this system ideal for animals could not make such steep climbs pulling heavy weight. The decline of the streetcar came with the Great Depression and the passing of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.
The subway system is ideal for a large and densely settled city such as New York. The picture (bottom left) is that of the Boston System. The New York system is the most extensive system in the world by number of stations (468 in total) and is one of the largest mass transit systems in the world (Subway web). Subway systems run mostly underground so the only traffic interference is from other trains in the network itself. Subway systems are safe in terms of ridership vs. accident injuries/deaths. The New York system alone has a daily ridership of 5.3 million during a normal weekday (subway web). This keeps millions of cars off the highways into the city and off the city streets as well as free up parking in the city. Subways are very efficient and a great transportation city for large cities.
Transportation systems have evolved in the United States over a period of almost 200 years. Without them our cities would be gridlocked and impossible to get around. Whether it be the vast subway system of New York City or the modest bus system of the UofA and Fayetteville, mass transit and transportation systems keep our country and its people moving.
Works Cited
“Downtown South Bend | History.” Downtown South Bend | History. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
“Subway and Bus Ridership.” Facts and Figures. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
“Sulphur Rock Street Car – Encyclopedia of Arkansas.” Sulphur Rock Street Car – Encyclopedia of Arkansas. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
Great article! I like how you talked about specific cities in the U.S. and the modes of transportation they were most known for.
Very nice discussion of transportation and good use of additional sources
Reblogged this on dobbyslittlesock and commented:
The story of transportation in urban American begins in the crouded cities of industrial Europe. With the massive amounts of people that rushed into these cities seeking weath and opperatunity, the job market becomes inflated. With the huge rush of people into these cites, industry booms because of this large, willing to work group of people. As more and more people move in wages go down and work becomes more scarce. Conditions in these european cities becomes very poor. And because of this massive number of people and a decrease in wages, people begin to spend less and less money. When people spend less money the economy suffers greatly. Word of expansive, cheap land and plenty of work in a growing economy, immigrants begin to move to the United States.
At the same time as Europeans are coming to the United States with the intension of finding new work, Americans living in rural America in small towns that used to supply food and other goods to the European countries begin to migrate to large cities in the United States to seek a more prosperouse life in every growing American city.
The combonation of these two groups of people causes American cities to grow rapidly. CIty living conditions become poor; wages go down because of the massive amount of people, and living becomes unsanatary and uncomfortable. With the poor wages comes a dip in the economy. Lower wages equals less money spent on other other products of the economy and the economy suffers.The every growing cities in the United States begin to look much like the overcrouded, poor conditions in european cites as people moved out of them.
Transportation around the city of 19th century America began with only the wealthy traveling from thier homes to the city in horse drawn carriges. The majority of the poor factory workers would have to live within walking distance of their workplace. However with the continuing growth of cities the need for public transportation grew. Streetcar lines were developed for the average worker. This allowed to boarders of the city to grow. The pattern of development was the wealth on the west side of the city. This was in reaction to the fumes that the factories produced would be blown to the east sde of the city, causing housing too be cheaper on the ast side. The west side could expand further and further as they developed more transportation such as subways. When you look at a map of a subway line, the lines usually travel from the center of the city to the west; this was becuase the wealth could afford to develope such transportation for themsleves into the city. However, subways were expensive and much of the trnsportation that existed in the city remained through electric street cars. This was the primary mode of transportation in the city witch allowed it to expand its boarders slightly until we see the development of cheaper cars and people begin to move out into belts and suburbs.
Good discussion, could have used a little more focus on transportation.
Reblogged this on carlylb and commented:
During the 19th and 20th century, economic prosperity attracted unprecedented numbers of foreigners to immigrate to the United States, as industrialization in the U.S. began. The U.S. government conducted a survey of the land to the west in 1796. Under the Homestead Act of 1862, any citizen or immigrant intending to become a citizen could file an application to claim 160 acres of surveyed U.S. Government-owned land, and if they built a 12 by 14 house on the land and lived there for five years the land would become theirs. The Homestead Act of 1862 gave opportunity for citizens and immigrants to settle westward who could not have afforded to buy land otherwise. The U.S. Government wanted people to move West in order to “pascify” the Native Americans and to deal with the increasing number of immigrants. To encourage westward expansion, the government passed the Pacific Railway Act that gave land grants encompassing a section of land that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean to the railroad companies so that the companies would lay down a railroad system all the way across the U.S. The railroad companies sold their unused land and inflated prices. The money obtained from selling the millions of acres of land helped finance the construction of the railroads and then some. With easy access to the cheap land in the West, as well as new and fast way of obtaining manufactured goods (even kit houses) from the east via the railroad and through catalogue companies, westward expansion kicked into gear as the transcontinental railroad had been laid by May 1869. Other incentives to move west, even as far as California, included the California Gold Rush from 1848-1855. The efforts to make the entire U.S. accessible by rail allowed the railway to take over as the main form of transportation in the U.S. (replacing the former transportation means by water). Where ever the railroad went, so did people and this led to the development of many American cities such Chicago and Los Angeles. The prosperity of booming cities in America can often be traced back to their access to railways because the cities and their hinterlands acted as collection and distribution points for manufactured goods. The cities accessible by the railroad grew because the railroad brought people into cities and allowed for the quick transportation of goods in and out of the city, supplying the needs of a large population. With cities being dominated by transportation and industry, the conditions of the inner city began to decline. As the railroad allowed for the creation of great cities, it also allowed the upper-middle class to move out into suburbs which caused the inner city to suffer from no tax base. Four other transcontinental railroads were laid by 1900. The use of railways and the like around and inside cities, such as the underground subway in New York, which started out as a steam railroad, has proven to be useful in that it allows for maximum development of the city above ground without taking up room to provide transportation ways for the massive amount of people living there. With the exception of places like Manhattan, the railroads began to be replaced by cars in the 1930s as the main form of transportation after the Federal-Aid Road Act of 1916. A sharp decline in the use of railroads happened in the 1950s and 60s due to the Highway Trust Fund that financed the Interstate Highway System.
Good discussion, although the focus should have been more on city transportation.
The innovations on land transportation plays a pivotal part in the development of the United States as nation and world power. Before the 1830s, most transportation depended on walking; in addition, the horse and wagon was the only means of quick but limited overland transportation. Therefore, the earliest cities in the original 13 colonies were located near the coast and at the mouth of rivers. These cities were restricted from commerce with each other because they were isolated by mountains and lack of connecting roads. Due to this they had no trade among each other and solely acted as extraction points for raw materials to be sold abroad. The post-colonial economy as an outcome was somehow limited to growth. The railroad systems were about to change all that. In 1826, the very first regional railroad opened and connected two US cities–Albany and Hamsburg. This lead the beginning of increase raw goods extractions from the hinterlands to the port cities and the start of smaller towns appearing further into the US interior.
Later with the invention of the steamboat, immigration to the United States became much cheaper and with population boom, the country sought to expand it domains by settling up cities. In 1803, after back and forth exchanges of hands between Spain and France, the United States finally were able to buy the entire Lousiana Territory from Napoleon. This meant more land to settle and further expansion westward (http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/louisiana-purchase). In 1845, the United States annexed the Texas Republic into the union further adding to its territory, but an action that resulted in a war with Mexico. The Mexican-American War in 1846 lasted two years. The then President of the United States, James K. Polk have now acquired all the land that was to become the American Southwest after signing the Treaty of Gualupe Hidalgo (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/texas-annexation).
In the years that followed the United States would annexed all the Oregon Territory and the Gadsen Purchase to its realm. All this land needed to be settled. The American Civil War change a lot things in the country. The country saw the need to expand the railroad system, as a result, a big unification plan of regional railroads were started. The first objectives were primarily concern with moving military supplies, but in years that followed a greater need arose. With the building of the new national railroad system, the railroad hub cities appeared. Now the population of the United States could shift further in to the interior. Cities like Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth arose from the development of the rail system. In addition, the Homestead Act of 1862, have now open the settling of government own lands out west. Transportation by the way of the Railroad Act allowed this expansion (http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act/). The Railroad Act stated ” is hereby given to said company to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road, earth, stone, timber, and other materials for the construction thereof; said right of way is granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad when it may pass over the public lands, including all necessary grounds, for stations, buildings, workshops, and depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turn tables, and water stations. The United States shall extinguish as rapidly as may be the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act” ( http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/five/railact.htm). As an outcome with the new waves of immigration and land hungry entrepreneurs the railroads needed to be built quick.
The early 1860s saw the influx of over 12,000 Chinese immigrants to work on the railroads systems that would to connect the West with the East (http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/railroads.html). The growth of the West coast cities emerged in places such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act lead to the expulsion of people of East Asian origins which lead people of Mexican ancestry to replaced Chinese in the building of the railroad (http://www.pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/history/timeline/12.html). The railroad system lead to the growth of cities, the dispersion of immigrants, settling of unsettled territory and the economic growth of the United States. Therefore, you can say that the United States without the railroad system couldn’t have become the economic power that it is today.
Reblogged this on urban geographical issues and commented:
The innovations on land transportation plays a pivotal part in the development of the United States as nation and world power. Before the 1830s, most transportation depended on walking; in addition, the horse and wagon was the only means of quick but limited overland transportation. Therefore, the earliest cities in the original 13 colonies were located near the coast and at the mouth of rivers. These cities were restricted from commerce with each other because they were isolated by mountains and lack of connecting roads. Due to this they had no trade among each other and solely acted as extraction points for raw materials to be sold abroad. The post-colonial economy as an outcome was somehow limited to growth. The railroad systems were about to change all that. In 1826, the very first regional railroad opened and connected two US cities–Albany and Hamsburg. This lead the beginning of increase raw goods extractions from the hinterlands to the port cities and the start of smaller towns appearing further into the US interior.
Later with the invention of the steamboat, immigration to the United States became much cheaper and with population boom, the country sought to expand it domains by settling up cities. In 1803, after back and forth exchanges of hands between Spain and France, the United States finally were able to buy the entire Lousiana Territory from Napoleon. This meant more land to settle and further expansion westward (http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/louisiana-purchase). In 1845, the United States annexed the Texas Republic into the union further adding to its territory, but an action that resulted in a war with Mexico. The Mexican-American War in 1846 lasted two years. The then President of the United States, James K. Polk have now acquired all the land that was to become the American Southwest after signing the Treaty of Gualupe Hidalgo (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/texas-annexation).
In the years that followed the United States would annexed all the Oregon Territory and the Gadsen Purchase to its realm. All this land needed to be settled. The American Civil War change a lot things in the country. The country saw the need to expand the railroad system, as a result, a big unification plan of regional railroads were started. The first objectives were primarily concern with moving military supplies, but in years that followed a greater need arose. With the building of the new national railroad system, the railroad hub cities appeared. Now the population of the United States could shift further in to the interior. Cities like Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth arose from the development of the rail system. In addition, the Homestead Act of 1862, have now open the settling of government own lands out west. Transportation by the way of the Railroad Act allowed this expansion (http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act/). The Railroad Act stated ” is hereby given to said company to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road, earth, stone, timber, and other materials for the construction thereof; said right of way is granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad when it may pass over the public lands, including all necessary grounds, for stations, buildings, workshops, and depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turn tables, and water stations. The United States shall extinguish as rapidly as may be the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act” ( http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/five/railact.htm). As an outcome with the new waves of immigration and land hungry entrepreneurs the railroads needed to be built quick.
The early 1860s saw the influx of over 12,000 Chinese immigrants to work on the railroads systems that would to connect the West with the East (http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/railroads.html). The growth of the West coast cities emerged in places such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act lead to the expulsion of people of East Asian origins which lead people of Mexican ancestry to replaced Chinese in the building of the railroad (http://www.pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/history/timeline/12.html). The railroad system lead to the growth of cities, the dispersion of immigrants, settling of unsettled territory and the economic growth of the United States. Therefore, you can say that the United States without the railroad system couldn’t have become the economic power that it is today.
Reblogged this on Neverending Wanderlust and commented:
Urban transport in North America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries took on a variety of forms, often depending on the geography of each particular city. As a whole, the continent saw a massive evolution of transportation during this time period. According to Borchert’s idea of “Transportation Epochs,” the continent moved through 3 different phases throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, each defined by its primary mode of transportation.
The beginning of the nineteenth century corresponds with the first of Borchert’s epochs, the Horse & Wagon Epoch (1790-1830). In this period, all major cities in North America, like New York, Philadelphia, Savannah, and Buffalo, were located on bodies of water, whether it be the Atlantic Ocean or rivers (or both). For the most part, there was little trade between cities as overland trade was very difficult; long distance road construction required technology that was not yet available. Some trade occurred over sea between cities, but international trade dominated. The construction of the Erie Canal allowed trade to expand into the interior of the continent and the Great Lakes.
The following epoch was the Regional Railroad Epoch (1830-1870). The introduction of the railroad to the North American continent allowed cities to spring up in places previously unsustainable. The first railroad in the United States, the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, took passengers and cargo between Albany and Schenectady, New York. Short railroads such as the Mohawk and Hudson were prevalent in this period. Many of them were constructed, but nearly all remained completely separate and even used different gauges. These railroads usually centered on existing cities (on bodies of water) and vastly expanded urban hinterlands. The newly enlarged hinterlands now would have access to overwater trade. Cities began to spring up in the interior of the country, far from bodies of water, like Atlanta and Birmingham. Cities on the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers became power players in this epoch.
The final epoch during these centuries was the National Railroad Epoch (1870-1920). Finally, disjointed regional railroads slowly became connected into a national rail network. Unfortunately, this caused the stagnation of river cities at the expense of massive rail hubs. Now that the whole country was connected by rail, rivers became much less important for transportation. This epoch saw the explosion of cities on the West Coast, as one no longer had to go the long way around Tierra del Fuego. This also meant that cheap European labor could now replace cheap Asian labor.
As we can see by traveling through Borchert’s Transportation Epochs, industrialization changed how people moved throughout the North American continent. Individual cities and their modes of transportation were also greatly affected by industrialization. Cities became much larger physically; walking across the city often became an unworkable proposition. Additionally, those who could afford it moved outside of the city in the very first stages of suburbanization, although they usually continued to work in the central business district. Thus, cities needed new ways to move their people around. The pictures this week show many of these new methods of ‘intraurban’ transport. The first shows a funicular, which allows people and goods to move up and down a steep hill easily. In cities surrounded by hills, the middle class frequently would move up the hills away from the city to escape the city itself. Thus, a funicular would be very useful. In flat cities with sufficient space available, like Los Angeles and New Orleans, streetcars became the best choice. However, many cities did not have the room for streetcars and had to utilize other modes of transport. Cities essentially had two options: go over or under the ground. New York and Boston went with subway systems, while Chicago chose the above street level L train. Each city went with the method that worked best with its geography and population. However, after World War II, the American public became enamored with the car, and urban transportation changed forever.
Good work
The innovations on land transportation plays a pivotal part in the development of the United States as nation and world power. Before the 1830s, most transportation depended on walking; in addition, the horse and wagon was the only means of quick but limited overland transportation. Therefore, the earliest cities in the original 13 colonies were located near the coast and at the mouth of rivers. These cities were restricted from commerce with each other because they were isolated by mountains and lack of connecting roads. Due to this they had no trade among each other and solely acted as extraction points for raw materials to be sold abroad. The post-colonial economy as an outcome was somehow limited to growth. The railroad systems were about to change all that. In 1826, the very first regional railroad opened and connected two US cities–Albany and Hamsburg. This lead the beginning of increase raw goods extractions from the hinterlands to the port cities and the start of smaller towns appearing further into the US interior.
Later with the invention of the steamboat, immigration to the United States became much cheaper and with population boom, the country sought to expand it domains by settling up cities. In 1803, after back and forth exchanges of hands between Spain and France, the United States finally were able to buy the entire Lousiana Territory from Napoleon. This meant more land to settle and further expansion westward (monticello.org/site/jefferson/louisiana-purchase). In 1845, the United States annexed the Texas Republic into the union further adding to its territory, but an action that resulted in a war with Mexico. The Mexican-American War in 1846 lasted two years. The then President of the United States, James K. Polk have now acquired all the land that was to become the American Southwest after signing the Treaty of Gualupe Hidalgo (history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/texas-annexation).
In the years that followed the United States would annexed all the Oregon Territory and the Gadsen Purchase to its realm. All this land needed to be settled. The American Civil War change a lot things in the country. The country saw the need to expand the railroad system, as a result, a big unification plan of regional railroads were started. The first objectives were primarily concern with moving military supplies, but in years that followed a greater need arose. With the building of the new national railroad system, the railroad hub cities appeared. Now the population of the United States could shift further in to the interior. Cities like Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth arose from the development of the rail system. In addition, the Homestead Act of 1862, have now open the settling of government own lands out west. Transportation by the way of the Railroad Act allowed this expansion (archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act/). The Railroad Act stated ” is hereby given to said company to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road, earth, stone, timber, and other materials for the construction thereof; said right of way is granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad when it may pass over the public lands, including all necessary grounds, for stations, buildings, workshops, and depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turn tables, and water stations. The United States shall extinguish as rapidly as may be the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act” ( pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/five/railact.htm). As an outcome with the new waves of immigration and land hungry entrepreneurs the railroads needed to be built quick.
The early 1860s saw the influx of over 12,000 Chinese immigrants to work on the railroads systems that would to connect the West with the East (ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/railroads.html). The growth of the West coast cities emerged in places such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act lead to the expulsion of people of East Asian origins which lead people of Mexican ancestry to replaced Chinese in the building of the railroad (pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/history/timeline/12.html). The railroad system lead to the growth of cities, the dispersion of immigrants, settling of unsettled territory and the economic growth of the United States. Therefore, you can say that the United States without the railroad system couldn’t have become the economic power that it is today.
Reblogged this on garretthenrythoughts.
Can’t find your discussion – okay found it when I scrolled down
Reblogged this on maybeokay and commented:
Railroads had a number of significant impacts on urban development. In the 1800s, early regional railways allowed already formed cities to expand, increasing their hinterland and access to associated resources—developments which, in turn, allowed industries to boom. They also made it possible to live further from already developed areas by ensuring a means of transportation for people, food, living necessities, and less integral consumer goods. During the regional railroad period, this allowed for the creation of new cities as depots near valuable resources or strategic transportation avenues (namely waterways) grew in population and importance, turning into cities themselves.
The growth of railroads from regional to national systems corresponded with westward expansion. Railways became a critical factor as to where cities could and did develop. And in both previously existent and newly developed areas, railroads became centers of activity, situated at the heart of industrial nodes and often cities themselves, dissecting the landscape. Cheap, efficient, long-range, and ever-evolving, railroads acted as economic, transportation, and development corridors across the United States.
Mass transit systems have many similarities, following a comparable pattern of evolution and utilizing many of the same technologies, offering similar benefits and impacts as railways—but in a more metropolitan, less continental frame. Early mass transit systems included omnibuses (horse-drawn buggies, basically) and their larger, track-based brother the horsecar. Technology and growing urban populations combined to generate a number of transit options “of gradually increasing speed, vehicle capacity, and range of travel” throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, including “cable cars, larger-capacity steam-powered trains, electric trains, and motor buses powered by internal-combustion engines” (Schofer). With limited space, mass transit went above and below the street level—London’s underground Metropolitan Railway in the 1860s, New York’s elevated trains in the 1860s and 70s—and sought to conquer topography—San Francisco’s trolley cars (1870s), aerial tramways.
The impact of these mass transit methods on urban development was multifold. For upper classes—and initially mass transit might more accurately be referred to as middle-upper class transit—horse and streetcars meant an increased ability to move away from dirty, busy, industry-filled city centers to more distant, pleasant, or scenic locations while staying connected to downtown. So began suburbs and “the emergence of neighborhoods differentiated by socioeconomic status” (Rodrigue). As mass transit became increasingly accessible—to more people and additional areas—it increased “the geographic area in which people functioned,” changing the concept of proximity and, as with railroads, defining the corridors along which businesses, residences, and industries (to some extent) developed in still-young urban areas (Schofer). As railroads grew cities westward, so did mass transit grow cities outward: size was no longer determined by whether a span could be traversed on foot.
The importance of mass transit systems as development corridors is still evident today both in the broad shape and value of urban locations (i.e. the concentration of apartments, stores, and offices near subway stations and the lesser appeal of urban places further away). It’s epitomized in places as far-flung as China, Korea, Canada, and France—places with extensive underground shopping centers attached to metro stations. Mass transit is not just the way to get to the mall; in some places, it is the mall.
Sources:
Rodigue, Jean-Paul. “Evolution of Transportation and Urban Form in North America and Europe.” The Geography of Transport Systems. Hofstra University, n.d. Web. 9 Feb 2014. .
Schofer, Joseph L. “Mass Transit.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2013. .
Good one. I like this a lot.
Excellent work – love3 the use of outside sources.
Reblogged this on esobrien and commented:
In Pre-Colonial North America the one of the major limitations to urbanization was the lack of organized transportation systems. That being said, urban growth rapidly increased as a result of the introduction of steamboats and railway transportation in the Eastern part of North America during the 19th and 20th Centuries.
Because of the natural landscape in most of North America, city planners and workers across the country were required to deal with the limitations of both water and land transportation. Originally cities were built around the water, be it lakes, rivers, or the ocean, as a power source and the main method of transportation. The rivers were used to connect regional cities and hinterlands to promote trade, but they were limited to only trading with areas around them because the major rivers were divided by watersheds. In the early 19th Century, through the introduction of canal technology and steamboats, urban growth and economic opportunities expanded, as cities were finally able to trade more easily with outside regions. The increase in transportation possibilities led to America putting an embargo on British goods during the War of 1812, and their new need for local industry enabled the country, especially in urban areas, to really grow and opened the door for US industry.
In the 1820s implementation of the regional railroad expanded connections with further distanced cities and more industrial hubs formed further inland in the country, such as Chicago, New Orleans, and St. Louis. There was still much separation between cities because the regional railroads were laid by small, independent companies that only had a few lines connected. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that the nation was more completely integrated through the national rail system. While new towns formed across the country, specializing in different industries. As the rail hubs expanded to cities like Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth, concentration of service also expanded to the larger cities.
Finally, America began to expand to the Westward frontier. The national railways, mixed with the Homestead Act in 1864, encouraged Americans to move to the Midwest and West areas of the country, seeking land, opportunity, and an escape from the rising poor living conditions. The move to California also boosted the growth of many cities and industries along the way, such as Denver and San Francisco.
As technology and transportation, within the city and across the countryside, grew in the 19th and 20th Centuries, people once again displayed signs of their lack of satisfaction. Benefits came, of course, such as the city realizing they must provide services for citizens that are now enabled to live in the urban areas, but expansion also started to shift away from the cities and towards a more controllable lifestyle. Now that it was possible to escape the city life and move, whether that meant moving to the agriculturally rich regions in California, or the planned suburbs and garden cities, people tried to take advantage of the new possibilities and jump on the train. We’re content with what we have and where we are until we realize there’s something more out there, and the transportation advancements made that idea more relevant for many Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Good, but you could have used a little more ficus on the actual images that I assigned.
When considering transportation in the U.S I think it is crucial to remember two things. As a newly formed nation, the U.S had access to two very important commodities; land and raw resources. This creates the necessity for interconnected transportation, thus generating the steam engine and improved train technology. And secondly, the invention of the car drastically changed the development of American cities in pre 20th century. It is these two factors that played the biggest role in the American transportation system. Train technology is an example of the progress discussed in the Brochert’s transportation epochs. The transition from a regional railroad connecting scattered “resource cities” into a national railroad infrastructure (and then eventually into Eisenhower’s interstate highway system) demonstrates the importance of movement. All that timber in Pennsylvania means nothing if it never makes it to Pittsburgh.
This same theory applies to people. The migration of people from the rural areas of the nation into cities like Chicago, and New Orleans, fueled by industrial job creation, creates several small populations explosions across America. These large groupings of people demand more and more sophisticated modes of transportation. Thus you have the birth of things like the cable cars of San Francisco. Several of the images from the blog show the early application of intercity public transportation. In the late 19th and early 20th century, these systems increased the size to which a city could expand. A great public transportation system allows a city to maintain a certain type of fluidity. Preventing congestion allows the cogs of labor and manufacturing to spin smoothly. Throw in a dash of ingenuity a lump of elbow grease and some good old fashioned specialization and you have New York City, Pittsburgh’s steel monopoly, Detroit’s car boom, Silicon Valley.
I was considering what to write for this blog the other day, and I started thinking about the canal system that connected Lake Eerie to the Atlantic. Not only single handedly creating Buffalo, Albany and a trade route to take advantage of the Great Lakes, it must have been a technological masterpiece. Navigating roughly 360 miles of a less-than-forgiving landscape, as well as managing to create a lock system capable of climbing 600 feet from sea level (the lock climbs about 300 feet in the first 30 miles, which doesn’t sound like much, but when you stop to remember that this was before the steam engine, and the basic physics of water, it’s pretty damn impressive). I would have loved to sit in on that proposal. The engineer must have sounded bat-shit crazy, but his idea was genius. One transportation route, opened countless other doors. Man-made modes of transportation are the life-blood of growth and progress. The Romans had their roads, the Dutch had their ships. America has the railroad and the steamship, eventually becoming the car and the plane. What will be the next transportation epoch? Flying cars and spaceships? The U.S expanded quickly around the turn of the 19th century by using its extensive arteries and resources. Major development demands two things; capital and logistics.
Love your discussion of the Erie Canal….
The transportation on USA has been developed since 18 century and became very important for its trade and life system. First of all, the characteristics of transport routes in the USA; Intended to transport a variety of methods, styles and media, technology, and regulatory and economic, which aims to transfer rights from one place to another. Furthermore, transport function and service linking all sectors of the national economy with each other, which has a prominent role in the field of international division of labor, regional and be an important transport basically the transfer of rights and its goods and wealth of one location to another within the geographical boundaries of the state at the lowest possible cost. Moreover, as the mission on a global scale is the establishment of closer ties between the international community in order to regulate the exchange of goods, raw materials and transport of passengers and tourists from one country to another and divide the transport routes to the methods of land and water and air (Al-Ghazali).
Railway probably did not play a vital in the life of any nation as it played in the life of the United States of America that State which expanded their territory along the whole continent. The distances between the U.S. states of different form a major obstacle in the way of communication between them since the days of British colonialism when it was named (The American colonies United) before the American Revolution and the achievement of independence under the name of the United States under the Treaty of Versailles between the rebels the Americans and the British authorities in Paris in 1783. Therefore, the developed of transportation especially the rail lines in early 19 century linked to the growth and prosperity of many large American cities currently, where the relationship between the railroads and the cities of America is a trade and trade off. While the lines are extended to connect the cities list were other cities appear on both sides of the line. Because of the vast area of the United States has become a rail network, which is the largest in the world to reach in 1923 to 258 thousand kilometers, more than the length of the rail network in Britain eleven times. The fact that the entry of the train to the United States in the first quarter of the nineteenth century hit snags political, social and topography, unlike the British experience. The advantage was that the first steam power in transportation in the United States was the steamboat used a network of rivers and lakes in the United States to transport humans and lost, where the total length of waterways navigation in the United States in 2700 mile stretch of New York in the north to New Orleans on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the south. All of those are a result of the development of transportation (Hamed, and Barbarian).
As a railroad map on these pictures, Chicago is very important railroad location and linking in North America. Chicago has been the important center for trade between cities, so it has a good system of railroads that linked beyond cities. The first railroad in Chicago was the Galena & Chicago Union. They were used in 1836 to build lines and roads to the lead mines at Galena in northwestern Illinois. However, the first lines were laid in 1848 that were not to Galena but to a location known as Oak Ridge (now Oak Park) (Hudson).
If we move from talking about surface trains in the United States to talk about the subway systems, in the world now will not find better than New York network of underground trains. New York City’s financial capital in the world, which is one of the most important and famous subway networks in the world (Hamed, and Barbarian).
• Hamed, Khaled, and Ashref Barbarian. “How contributed to the unification of the train in the United States.” al-jazirah. Al-Jazeera Journal, n.d. Web. 9 Feb 2014. .
• Al-Ghazali, Jassim. “BASIC EDUCATION COLLEGE.” Transport on the continent of North America. University of Babylon- Iraq, n.d. Web. 9 Feb 2014. .
• Hudson, John C. “Railroads.” The Encyclopedia of Chicago. The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago, n.d. Web. 9 Feb 2014. .
Reblogged this on meshari86 and commented:
The transportation on USA has been developed since 18 century and became very important for its trade and life system. First of all, the characteristics of transport routes in the USA; Intended to transport a variety of methods, styles and media, technology, and regulatory and economic, which aims to transfer rights from one place to another. Furthermore, transport function and service linking all sectors of the national economy with each other, which has a prominent role in the field of international division of labor, regional and be an important transport basically the transfer of rights and its goods and wealth of one location to another within the geographical boundaries of the state at the lowest possible cost. Moreover, as the mission on a global scale is the establishment of closer ties between the international community in order to regulate the exchange of goods, raw materials and transport of passengers and tourists from one country to another and divide the transport routes to the methods of land and water and air (Al-Ghazali).
Railway probably did not play a vital in the life of any nation as it played in the life of the United States of America that State which expanded their territory along the whole continent. The distances between the U.S. states of different form a major obstacle in the way of communication between them since the days of British colonialism when it was named (The American colonies United) before the American Revolution and the achievement of independence under the name of the United States under the Treaty of Versailles between the rebels the Americans and the British authorities in Paris in 1783. Therefore, the developed of transportation especially the rail lines in early 19 century linked to the growth and prosperity of many large American cities currently, where the relationship between the railroads and the cities of America is a trade and trade off. While the lines are extended to connect the cities list were other cities appear on both sides of the line. Because of the vast area of the United States has become a rail network, which is the largest in the world to reach in 1923 to 258 thousand kilometers, more than the length of the rail network in Britain eleven times. The fact that the entry of the train to the United States in the first quarter of the nineteenth century hit snags political, social and topography, unlike the British experience. The advantage was that the first steam power in transportation in the United States was the steamboat used a network of rivers and lakes in the United States to transport humans and lost, where the total length of waterways navigation in the United States in 2700 mile stretch of New York in the north to New Orleans on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the south. All of those are a result of the development of transportation (Hamed, and Barbarian).
As a railroad map on these pictures, Chicago is very important railroad location and linking in North America. Chicago has been the important center for trade between cities, so it has a good system of railroads that linked beyond cities. The first railroad in Chicago was the Galena & Chicago Union. They were used in 1836 to build lines and roads to the lead mines at Galena in northwestern Illinois. However, the first lines were laid in 1848 that were not to Galena but to a location known as Oak Ridge (now Oak Park) (Hudson).
If we move from talking about surface trains in the United States to talk about the subway systems, in the world now will not find better than New York network of underground trains. New York City’s financial capital in the world, which is one of the most important and famous subway networks in the world (Hamed, and Barbarian).
• Hamed, Khaled, and Ashref Barbarian. “How contributed to the unification of the train in the United States.” al-jazirah. Al-Jazeera Journal, n.d. Web. 9 Feb 2014. .
• Al-Ghazali, Jassim. “BASIC EDUCATION COLLEGE.” Transport on the continent of North America. University of Babylon- Iraq, n.d. Web. 9 Feb 2014. .
• Hudson, John C. “Railroads.” The Encyclopedia of Chicago. The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago, n.d. Web. 9 Feb 2014. .
Reblogged this on archaeogisci and commented:
The assemblage of photographs describe with each image the presence of railway systems, ranging from what appears to be commuter rail, commercial trains, a graveyard for trains that had fallen into disuse, and antique maps illustrating the points connected by such systems. Railways, first appearing in the early 19th century essentially functioned as an artificial circulatory system for the movement of goods and people, through first through a region to facilitate overland transportation. Regional rail lines, like the first laid down between Albany and Schenectady, despite being inefficient by today’s standards, were nevertheless an improvement. At this point, Americans were without an overland routes to much of the interior United States much less to the west coast. Railway transport not only enabled greater access to further hinterlands and gradually to the “shining sea,” but at least equally important, they enabled cities with greater access to one another rather than functioning as independent units as they had done prior. Whereas before trains were widely used, the primary points of distribution were necessarily located to have access to navigable waters, each train depot which sprang up was comparable to an artificial port, a gathering point for the distribution of exported raw materials and imported finished, value-added goods.
The evolution of rail transport from independent, regional rail systems into linked up transnational systems truly became a conduit of urbanism in the late 19th century United States. What is more, the discovery of gold ore in California and silver ore in Nevada in the mid-19th century created the primary impetus to cross the country and provided a means of populating the west coast and points in between. It seems very organic; the rail lines created nodes which were further cultivated into cities from their connectedness to other cities by means of the rail. Once a rail depot is established, it predictably creates needs for locally-produced goods and services around that location and thus enterprising people will be drawn to such areas to address the needs created by these new markets. The “Great American Desert,” the flat, land-locked central United States, was effectively seeded by transnational rail.
By the very late 19th century-early 20th century, the transnational railroad was a reality, and by the time not only had both regions and the country at larger been linked up and traversable on a macro scale, but also, as is described by the top-right image of Chicago’s L train(dated 1921), so too was the city for commuter transport on the local scale. In the early 20th century, cities like Boston, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles (bottom right), and San Francisco among others developed city transit systems, greatly enabling the circulation of commuters throughout the city and thus fertilizing the ground for further urbanism driven by the needs for goods and services of those commuters circulating within the city. The development of rail was a clear factor in the expansion of the city because it provided transport for raw and manufactured goods, but also long distance travel for people, and greater access to the city for its dwellers.
really nice discussion
Reblogged this on GEOG Spring 2014.
Urban transportation innovations of the 19th and 20th centuries helped build America into what it is today and helped our country expand and unite. We owe our modern economy, lifestyle, and government to innovations in transportation.
Early American cities were made to harvest raw materials and export them abroad using waterways. Each city focused on one or few materials so they did not have the means to manufacture more sophisticated goods. During the industrial revolution of the early to mid 19th century cities began to produce more sophisticated goods and the accompanying waves of immigration from rural America and abroad, built up the population and work force within America’s cities. Now cities needed a way to sprawl out in order to create room for everyone while making sure that they could still get to work. Electric streetcars were the first highly efficient form of urban transportation technology that the majority of the cities’ people could afford to use, then with the advent of the railroad came the subway. This is how suburbanization began because it gave people away to live further away from work and shopping. This is the lifestyle that most Americans live. They live in an urban area, in a single family home, commuting long distances each work day. Transportation having made manufacturing easier and shipping cost lower, created wealth, enhancing the American standard of living.
Big changes in America’s cities occurred when the railroad was developed. Politics started to change as cities realized how critical a railroad was to a city’s success. Taxes were levied to pay for the railroads and city governments would have had to be well organized to put together a good campaign to attract a railroad. City planning became more important as cities had to plan where to place the railroads and how to develop infrastructure to transport goods between factories and railroads. The financial burden of the railroads was too much for the smaller cities to bare. The result was the beginning of the federal and state governments’ involvement in city politics, especially when it came to expenditures. This laid the ground work for the system of coercive federalism that we have to day where the lower levels of government rely on the higher levels of government to provide the funding and framework for their projects and policies. The urban transportation systems of the 20th century lead to some of the biggest political issues of today. The automobile became the focal point of the urban transportation system in the early 20th century and the interstate drastically changed the urban landscape in the middle of the 20th century. When people started realizing that these innovations lead to a concentration of poverty at the urban core and large amounts of pollution, people began to look at older modes of urban transportation to combat the issues.
Changes in urban transportation also changed the American economy. It meant that goods could be shipped more freely and various sorts of manufacturing could happen anywhere. When transportation allowed people to live further away, it allowed service employees to work further away from the factories, creating centers of business and finance in cities. As a result, in the mid to late 20th century the urban economy shifted from a manufacturing based one to the service based one that we know today.
This collage shows how urban transportation has changed overtime, and how these changes have led to sprawl. What it does not show is how urban transportation impacted the American lifestyle, economy, and government.
I tried to fix it, but it removed my indentions. I’m sorry it looks sloppy. Also, I figured it out the first week, but I can’t figure out how to re-blog this.
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Reblogged this on The Urban World and commented:
In the latter half of the 19th century, with the advent of the steam engine and railroads, a fundamental shift occurred in both the infrastructure of the United States, as well how logistics was understood by organizations both of the public and private sectors. For the first time, nautical travel was no longer the fastest means to a destination. Instead, one could simply board a hypothetical train in New England, and, many days later, arrive in California, as opposed to a long, harrowing sea voyage circumnavigating South America and Cape Horn, or an even more perilous journey overland without the aid of the steam engine. With this in mind, it became the goal of the US government to make this hypothetical the reality of a new, more interconnected nation. But long distance travel on a single linear path would not do – there would need to be a vast network of railways, connecting every rural town that could act as a local hub for the collection of resources connecting to major markets, as well connections between all those major markets to allow the speedy flow of goods, and cause the wheels of economy to spin ever faster. To that end, the federal government granted tracts of land alongside their proposed railways paths to the railroad companies involved in laying down the lines as an economic incentive to help fund the railroad at the onset, as well as provide future incentives in land sales near the railroad for commercial properties, aiding in the creation of the quintessential American downtown. Yet this was not the only effect the railway had upon the American downtown, and, indeed, American life in general. For the first time, the railway allowed the notion of a public transportation system, allowing urban sites to sprawl in a manner that had never before been possible. Where once a city’s limits had been determined by the distance and time it took to travel on foot from a residence to a place of employment, now, with the steam engine, that range of travel was greatly magnified, allowing the creation of suburban residential districts to spring up around cities. Subways, elevated trains, and street cars are still in use today for traveling within cities, but urban sprawl once again grew with the invention of the internal combustion engine, allowing personal travel of individuals at speeds never imagined. This fortunately could take place on the preexisting roads which, while requiring some renovating in places, by and large were already fit for wheeled travel. While occasionally there might be a steep slope better traversed by an inclined plane, which was essentially a cable car pulled by a chain attacked to a stationary steam engine, also known as a cliff railway or funicular, by and large roads for personal vehicles and railways laid on relatively flat ground, or incredibly gentle slopes, would both dominate and forever change the infrastructure of the United States, the means by which resources were collected and distributed, and the fundamental morphology of American cities.
Good discussion of public transport
Reblogged this on Uncharted and commented:
There has been a significant amount of advances in Americans means of transportation. From the 19th century on we have come a very long way. Before the 19th century came along there were horse-drawn carriages. Nowadays there are still a few cultures that use the horse drawn carriage which include some of the Amish cultures or if you want to go on a fairytale ride around a city square for entertainment. This evolved into a single horse drawn buggy. These were very cheap to make and made for the rugged American roads that were not up to par. There was also an omnibus which would later evolve into what is now a streetcar. It looked like a stagecoach and was pulled by horses. It was developed my Abraham Brower, who later helped make the fire departments, in New York City in 1827. (About- Inventors) They later evolved by cables running and horses pulling them along these cables. Frank Sprague was the first to put in a complete system of electric streetcars in Richmond, Virginia in 1888. After other cities saw this and the dramatic effect it had on the public being able to travel through the city they adopted this layout and added in to their own urban planning set ups. Later the streetcar would also fully run on electricity instead of steam these were known and still are known to be trolley cars. The late 19th century also included the invention of the bicycle; these of course were not made for long distances but were great riding around in the city.
Now these means of transportation were great when it came to short distances at a slow rate of speed, but, one of the most important inventions in transportation was the railroad systems. Even though the first railway did originate in 1764 for military purposed only in a Niagara portage in Lewiston, New York by Captain John Montressor, it became more popular in and more publically used in the 18th and 19th centuries. (History of Railroads and Maps) This introduction of railroad became one the most influential means of transportation in America. John Stevens is a man that is considered to be the father of American Railroads. He received the first charter for North America for a railroad with a steam locomotive. (History of Railroads and Maps) The railroads meant that people could travel long distances and towns could be connected from different states. This also brought along the accessibility of getting resources from one point to the other and the ability to expand people’s means of living. By the early 19th century there was a little over 353,000 miles of railroad track throughout the United States. (The Henry Ford) In January of 1871 Andrew Smith Hallidie from San Francisco patented the first cable car. The design was metal ropes, invented by Smith, that the cares were drawn by an endless cable running in a slot between rails that a steam driven shaft was on. The first track ran was about eight hundred feet. By 1920s most all horse drawn buggies and cars were replaced by these cable cars. (About-inventors) Later of course the one invention in transportation would come and that is the Model T by Harry Ford which is an automobile. Without the inventing and expanding of these means of transportation in the Americas we would in no way be where we are today.
Works Cited
(Streetcars – Cable Cars) (History of a Streetcar) Federal Transit Administration. 2014. Retrieved from http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blstreetcars.htm
(History of Railroads and Maps). 2014. Retrieved from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/rrintro.html
(Transportation: Past, Present and Future).The Henry Ford. 2011. Retrieved from http://www.thehenryford.org/education/erb/TransportationPastPresentAndFuture.pdf
Reblogged this on My Thoughts About Urban Geography and commented:
Around fifteen to twenty years ago, hardly anyone had a computer, much less internet access to our information highway. Just in that way, during the early 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th, not everyone had cars. They were almost impractical or too expensive for the average person to own. During the industrial revolution, the “average” person was the one working in the factories. While at the beginning of the industrial revolution in the United States most of the working population was living very near to the factories, the plan supervisors and other higher-ups did not live close by. The reason for that was all the pollution and filthiness of the lower class workers and the factories themselves. The upper class normally lived up wind from the factories to avoid airborne polluters. So, the original inner city transports were mainly used by the upper class. However, with the rapid growth of incoming labor and lack of technology to build the high-rises that we have today to house the working population, I presume that the lower working class started to spread out from the factory. With that movement outwards and a lack of independent forms of transportation, the city began to provide transportation so that factory workers could still easily get to the city.
The most popular and efficient form of transportation around this time for moving many people, or a lot of weight, was the rail system. So, naturally, this would be the best method and current technology available for cities to employ within their limits. The inner city transportation started and progressed just like the rest of public transportation did. The trolley car was originally pulled by horses, then with the invention of the steam engine, that was the next power source until the electric engine was invented giving the look of the trolleys pictured here. Also shown here are cable driven vehicles as well. This would allow a detached engine and pulley systems making travel up and down slopes much more attainable than by horse drawn or the steam engine alone.
There are also underground systems here. I believe that these came about as a counter measure to the trains and trams taking up urban space. This occurred around the time that the personal car was becoming increasingly popular and more affordable. This leads to the need for more room on the streets for cars, which then leads to inner city rail lines to be separated from the rest of the vehicular traffic. From what I think I’ve been told before, to create an underground system like the one shown above, that has to be built before the city, for the most part at least. Which makes sense to me especially considering cities like New York or Chicago, trying to dig under skyscrapers might be difficult. Which, in Chicago’s case, may account for the metro lines that run above the streets. And personally, I think that actually adds something to the city. Still, those lines are separated from the rest of the vehicular traffic while still adding something to the urban atmosphere and makes the train ride more exciting than an underground system.
Reblogged this on jennnyp123 and commented:
In the after math of the industrial revolution the culture of the United States began to shift dramatically along with many aspects of day to day life. Perhaps one of the greatest and most influential changes was that of both local and national transportation. North America was first colonized by a number of independent countries and corporations and different settlements had little contact or interaction with each other. Gateway cities were established for specific purposes and were intended to gather natural resources from the hinterland to send back home. Port cities were developed on major water ways and functioned has trading hubs from which a large majority of these raw materials would be shipped across the atlantic where they would be turned into processed goods. This all began to change after the war of 1812 when an embargo was placed on British goods requiring the united States to develop industrial centers of their own. This shift led to the advent of the regional railroads which forever changed the development of the United States. The first rail put in place ran from Albany to Schenectady and many more followed with the intention of linking cities with their hinterland. The use of steam boats was then added to the picture allowing the use of big river systems advancing the transportation of goods. Major cities such as Chicago developed as they was able to transport raw materials from its hinterland, in this case iron ore and gain, and then process them into usable goods. At this point railroads were comprised of small independent companies running just 1 or 2 lines with few connections between regions. After the civil war many railroad companies especially in the north joined together to transport supplies. This trend continued and more and more tracks were developed connecting different regions. River cities became less efficient and focused more on processing goods such as beer and grain alcohol. The railways became even more essential to american culture due to a shifting focus on westward expansion. The homestead act was passed in 1864 giving away free land in the midwest but the government had to find a way to get people there. The pacific railway acts were passed giving away land to railroad companies that expanded westward. Railroad companies became very profitable and led to the development of cities with major railroad hubs. The rail system eventually reached the west coast, in response to governments desire to replace asian immigrant labor with cheap European labor, and led to the development of cities such as San Francisco and Seattle. It was now possible to travel across the country in a week instead of having to sail around the continent which took months. Industries were no longer confined only to the natural resources found in their area and with other developments such as Sears the catalog company you could get anything you needed delivered right to your door. Major cities in the United States were dominated by their industry and transportation and eventually many began to disintegrate. Industrialization led to overcrowded, filthy, sprawling cities. Cities began to expand vertically as well as horizontally and focused on a central business district which was highly concentrated with all the services a business required. Very poor, unsanitary conditions and mass immigration led to the beginnings of suburbanization as the upper and middle class fled to less concentrated areas further from their work place. Street cars and rail systems were developed in many cities to facilitate this shift as the wealthy could afford it. I think that it is interesting to look at the way public transportation and progressed especially in recent years. What at one point was a privilege enjoyed primarily by the upper and middle class has become almost the opposite. Today if you have a car chances are that you are going to drive it unless you live in New
York city or other very urban areas. Many argue the importance of public transportation especially from and environmental standpoint and I find it interesting to see how much things have changed especially in such a short amount of time.
More focus on the public transport systems in the images would have been helpful. Otherwise good.