How did the transportation industry get started?

Answer 1

The development in transportation brought about economic changes was that commerce was now easier. Before the invention of the railroad, which really brought about drastic changes, was the use of the canal system. After the 1820's a new way to move goods from north to south and east to west was needed and thus the idea of canals came to be. At first vessels were not engine powered and were pushed along the canal by a long shaft. This development greatly increased the feasibility of moving goods and thus why the Erie canal was built. The Erie canal was essentially built from New England westward were the goods were then removed and then taken by ship down the Mississippi River into the south.

After canals had been around for some years the need for an even better mode of transportation was required as the vessels could not be pushed back up the Mississippi for reloading. When eh steamboat was invented it solved this exact problem. With the power to paddle upstream and with speeds greater than that of previous carriers, the steamboat was a perfect match. However, as more canal ways were needed to get supplies to more areas the issues of geography came into play. Canals could not go through, up and over or under a mountain side, thus the only alternative was to dig all the way around.

When the rail-line was first established it allowed transportation to augment even further. Supplies could be moved at record speeds, and the powerful engines could get to more places via more accessible rail-lines. After universal railroads were established, the economy of the north and the country boomed.

These rail lines stretched even further than the canals had and in a few years the canals were almost completely obsolete. Because of its industrialist society, the north had far more rail way than the south and thus not only split the two regions geographically but also added to the separation of the regions in that the north relied on these railroads to move goods and the south was solely slave and agricultural.

In the time of the civil war the difference in amount of railroads between the north and the south proved fatal to the south. With more and better railroads, the north was able to supply its troops better and was able to move troops in to the south more quickly in order to relieve troops. With the southern ports under a blockade and with the north all but destroying what few rail lines the south did have the south was completely devastated and crippled not to mention at a disadvantage to the north's railways.