The successive developments of the steamboat, the canal system, and the steam-powered locomotive alleviated the cost and time of the journey, produced growth in manufacturing, encouraged western settlement, and led to increased foreign trade.
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Standards of living of people around the world radically increased because for the first time trade was easier, safer, faster, more reliable and convenient. Goods could be shipped around the world and traded for other products.
Transportation moves people and goods to different neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries; and it allows people in those various places to trade and do business together.
Improved transport also made it possible to develop production systems that required large-scale movement of raw goods from various production regions to manufacturing centers. For example, cotton traveled from agricultural regions in the US South, Egypt, and India to England and New England.
Access to transportation reduces barriers to employment, to educational opportunities, to health care, and to child care. Access to these opportunities and resources affect all the dimensions of mobility from poverty.
Railroads became a major industry, stimulating other heavy industries such as iron and steel production. These advances in travel and transport helped drive settlement in the western regions of North America and were integral to the nation's industrialization.