What was the best transportation in the 1800s?

Waterways and a growing network of railroads linked the frontier with the eastern cities. Produce moved on small boats along canals and rivers from the farms to the ports. Large steamships carried goods and people from port to port. Railroads expanded to connect towns, providing faster transport for everyone.



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At the beginning of the century, U.S. citizens and immigrants to the country traveled primarily by horseback or on the rivers. After a while, crude roads were built and then canals. Before long the railroads crisscrossed the country moving people and goods with greater efficiency.

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The Golden Age Americans have been using railroads since the 1820s! Most of the early locomotives in America were imported from Great Britain, although the United States was quick to form a locomotive manufacturing industry of its own.

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The railroad opened the way for the settlement of the West, provided new economic opportunities, stimulated the development of town and communities, and generally tied the country together.

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At the beginning of the 19th century movement was largely along dirt roads and depended on horses or walking. Canals, some associated with the nascent Industrial Revolution, existed in a few places, but movement along the canals was also dependent on animal power. It could take weeks to cross Europe.

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