How did people travel in the 1850's?

Answer 1

In the 1850's there were several ways to travel. The railroad had been invented so they could be used. Steamboats were on the southern rivers and they were a great means of transportation for people and goods. Keel boats used the smaller rivers and they carried both people and goods. People also travelled by horse, on foot, and with carriages/wagons. There took longer for long distrance travel than the railroad, steamboat or keel boat. If you wanted to go 30 miles by horse it would take at least 3 days because you can only travel about 10 miles a day by horse. So, a round trip of 30 miles took a week or more. People also had to travel by day since there were no lights at night and unless a person knew the area they could get hurt falling off a cliff, bridge or in a ravine.

By 1820 there were sixty steamboats on the Mississippi River and by 1860 there were 1,000. In 1811 the construction of the Cumberland Road began and by 1852 it was finished. It carried people and goods west with brightly painted stagecoaches pulled by 4 to 6 horses going at least 20 miles an hour. Canals were also built. The Erie Canal had been built in 1817 and it was 363 miles when finished. Finally in 1825 it connected the Hudson river to NY harbor. Shipping went from 100 to 5.00 for a ton of grain and it took only 6 days compared to the 20 days it use to take. By 1860 the United States had 30,000 miles of railorad.th Irish travelled on steamboats and trains/trams across the country or across the world.