Wealth and Power Associated With Transportation Systems
The average walking speed for an adult is three to four miles an hour. As technology evolves people are able to travel farther, and deliver goods faster, and the world continues to become a smaller place. In real everyday life, wealth and power are inherent with the control of transportation mediums. The creators of literature and film repeatedly pay homage to this fact, especially when they can cast their protagonist as the villain. In the novel “The Financier” (Dreiser, 2008) Frank Cowperwood risked the loss of his personal freedom in an attempt to gain control of a streetcar system. In the film “Wall Street” (Stone, 1987) Gordon Gekko took the same risks in an effort to assume control of a small airline company. Even though “The Financier” and “Wall Street” were created more than 75 years apart, both works acknowledge the importance of transportation systems. However, are transportation systems fundamental to the evolution of society, or are they simply a way for financial speculators to make money?
If you wanted to travel any significant distance in the United States at the beginning of the 19th century your options were limited; you could walk, ride a horse, or use some type of horse or oxen powered wagon. If you were fortunate enough to be near a river, you might save some wear and tear on your shoes travelling by canoe or boat, but this required someone to do the rowing, at least when you were traveling upstream. But in 1807 an inventor named Robert Fulton created the first steamboat, and the nature of transportation changed forever. (Hattaway, 1997) Up until this time the transportation of people and cargo was a slow, tedious process. Although the country was grow...
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When the country was founded, the geography was a bigger obstacle than it is today. Before the Industrial Revolution, the primary way to move anything was on water. Rivers and Oceans were the original roads and the fastest and least expensive way to move goods. Most of the population "[was] located either at tidewater or along broad, navigable streams that could not be used to produce much water power" (Nye 44). These geographic features made it possible to move items to areas further away from the coast. Moving things one of the three modes of land transport, "by foot, on a horse, or in a wheeled vehicle" (Cowan 94) were too expensive and difficult with no developed roads. People began to look for ways to make this travel more affordable by creating waterways like the Eire canal to connect places. However, most were unsuccessful and the idea passed. Steam engines also made river travel more feasible. It was not difficult to take a barge full of goods down river; however, it would take months to pole the boat back upriver and usually was not even attempted.
In America’s time there have been many great men who have spent their lives creating this great country. Men such as George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson fit these roles. They are deemed America’s “founding fathers” and laid the support for the most powerful country in history. However, one more man deserves his name to be etched into this list. His name was John Marshall, who decided case after case during his role as Chief Justice that has left an everlasting mark on today’s judiciary, and even society itself. Through Cases such as Marbury v. Madison (1803) and McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) he established the Judicial Branch as an independent power. One case in particular, named Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), displayed his intuitive ability to maintain a balance of power, suppress rising sectionalism, and unite the states under the Federal Government.
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Small towns, quaint and charming, ideally picturesque for a small family to grow up in with a white picket fence paired up with the mother, father and the 2.5 children. What happens when that serene local town, exuberantly bustling with business, progressively loses the aspects that kept it alive? The youth, boisterous and effervescent, grew up surrounded by the local businesses, schools and practices, but as the years wear on, living in that small town years down the road slowly grew to be less appealing. In The Heartland and the Rural Youth Exodus by Patrick J. Carr and Maria Kefalas equally argue that “small towns play an unwitting part in their own decline (Carr and Kefalas 33) when they forget to remember the “untapped resource of the
Railroads first appeared around the 1830’s, and helped the ideas of Manifest Destiny and Westward expansion; however, these were weak and didn’t connect as far as people needed, thus causing them to be forced to take more dangerous routes. On January 17th, 1848, a proposal was sent to Congress by Asa Whitney to approve and provide federal funding...
Canals, steamboats, and railroads allowed for faster travel of exports and the creation of bigger cities. The invention of the Pony Express, specialized regions, and infrastructure permitted Americans to keep in touch over long distances and the creation of market towns, which inspired a deep, national connection from all corners of the country. The giant leap made by the Transportation Revolution changed America greatly in ways of their economy and
Throughout the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, the United States economy changed dramatically as the country transformed from a rural agricultural nation to an urban industrial gian, becoming the leading manufacturing country in the world. The vast expansion of the railroads in the late 1800s’ changed the early American economy by tying the country together into one national market. The railroads provided tremendous economic growth because it provided a massive market for transporting goods such as steel, lumber, and oil. Although the first railroads were extremely successful, the attempt to finance new railroads originally failed. Perhaps the greatest physical feat late 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Company, starting in San Francisco, and the new competitor, Union Pacific, starting in Omaha. The two companies slaved away crossing mountains, digging tunnels, and laying track the entire way. Both railroads met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869, and drove one last golden spike into the completed railway. Of course the expansion of railroads wasn’t the only change being made. Another change in the economy was immigration.
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Roads, steamboats, canals, and railroads lowered the cost and shortened the time of travel. By making these improvements, products could be shipped into other areas for profit (Roark, 260). Steamboats set off a huge industry and by 1830, more than 700 steamboats were operating up and down the Ohio and Mississippi River (Roark, 261). Steamboats also had some flaws, due to the fact of deforesting the paths along the rivers. Wood was needed to refuel the power to the boat.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Chief Justice John Marshall affected the American Judicial System. The reader will therefore first find a brief biography of John Marshall. Then the paper will explain in detail the origins of the Judicial Power to subsequently...
Travel by land and water was both tedious and expensive. Transporting one ton of goods across states would cost around 100 dollars or 1,265 dollars in today’s money. In the 1790s, land routes connecting the east coast and the farther western regions of the United States were undeveloped. Along with this, when weather conditions were poor land routes could not support any sort of dependable shipping by wagon, or even travel by horseback. Natural waterways provided the most dependable method of transport west of Albany. Even travel by waterway in this time period was inconvenient because these water routes were unreliable due to shallow water and raging rapids.
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Wilgus, Grand Central Terminal’s chief engineer, was born in Buffalo, New York in 1865. He not only made the reconstruction of Grand Central Terminal possible, but also significantly improved it in all ways. In 1902, there was a serious train accident that happened in the Park Avenue Tunnel, which belonged to The Grand Central Depot. Fifteen passengers died in the accident. It was a severe tragedy; Therefore, William J. Wilgus wrote a letter to the Railroad’s President W. H. Newman. In his message, he came up with a bold idea: to tear down the old terminal and replace it with a whole new station for electric trains. Despite the radical conditions of this proposal, the president approved his idea, and the reconstruction began in 1903. Rebuilding the terminal was not just about replacing the trains and the facilities, but also intended to create a landmark in New York City. As we all know, New York City was already a well-known city in the world back then. The architect’s selection was through competition, which was a popular method at the time. While many architects and firms participated in the contest, only two won----Reed & Stern and Warren & Wetmore. While Reed & Stern were taking care of the overall design, Warren & Wetmore cared for the details. It took ten years to build the new terminal; however, the new one was much better than the old one, and other train stations in the city. The design was delicate; the building material was the best at that
At the beginning of the industrial revolution in England during the mid-nineteenth century, the railroad was the most innovative mode of transportation known. The British Rail system was a forerunner in railroad technology, uses, and underground engineering. Though the rail system was extremely slow at first and prohibitively expensive to build and run, the British were not to be dissuaded in their pursuit of non-animal driven transportation. The most advanced mode of transportation prior to the introduction of the rail system was the horse drawn omnibus on a track, called a tram. This paper will examine the rail system from a cultural perspective, presenting the impact the railway had on everyday lives in Victorian London and its surrounding communities.
Travel speed in the 1800's also needed improvement. Even though horses are strong animals, they cannot match the power of today's gasoline engines. One day a week was set aside for the trip into town to gather goods.