U.S. HistoryChapter 13: Industrial Growth in the North

Section 3: The Transportation Revolution

New Ways to Travel•Transportation Revolution

–Period of rapid growth in the speed & convenience in travel

–Created a boom in business

New Ways to Travel•Roads, canals built

•New inventions

–Steamboat–Railroad

New Ways to Travel•Shipping times reduced

–1817: shipping cargo from Cincinnati, OH to New York, NY took two months

–1850s: One week

New Ways to Travel•Shipping costs reduced

–Overland: $100 to ship a load of goods by land across NY state

–Canal: $5

The Steamboat•Steamboat: one of the first breakthroughs of the transportation revolution

The Steamboat•Robert

Fulton: inventor who developed a steam-powered boat

Robert Fulton

The Steamboat

•1803: tested a steamboat in FranceFulton demonstrating his

steamboat to Napoleon Bonaparte

The Steamboat

• Clermont: full-sized commercial steamboat

The Steamboat•Advantages:

–Move quickly against the current–Did not rely on wind power–Shorter travel time, reduced costs

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)• Thomas Gibbons:

operated a steamboat between NJ & Manhattan using a federal license

• Did not have a state license from NY

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)• Aaron Ogden: had

been granted a monopoly on the steamboat business by NY state

• Ogden sues GibbonsAaron Ogden

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

•Supreme Court rules in favor of Gibbons

–Assertion of Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce

–Federal law overruled state law

American Railroads• 1800s: Steam-

powered trains developed in Britain

• 1830: Peter Cooper builds the Tom Thumb

Peter Cooper

American Railroads

• Steam-powered trains became popular after Cooper raced the Tom Thumb

against a horse-drawn railcar

American Railroads•1840: 2000 miles of track laid

•Engineers built faster, more powerful locomotives

•Accidents common because engineers would travel too fast

American Railroads•1860: 30,000 miles of track laid

•Shipping goods to distant markets

•Helped cities grow