US History
Fort Burrows
11.2 -- Americans Move Westward
Improvements in transportation in the first half of the 1800s helped make it easier move people and goods in the expanding nation.
flatboat - boat with a flat bottom used for transporting heavy loads on inland
waterways
turnpike - road built by a private company that charges a toll to use it
Lancaster Turnpike - road built in the 1790s by a private company, linking
Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania
corduroy road - road made of logs
National Road - 1stfederally funded national road project, begun in 1811
Clermont - steamboat built in 1807by Robert Fulton; 1st steamboat to be
commercially successful in American waters
Erie Canal-artificial waterway opened in 1825 linking Lake Erie to the Hudson River
Traveling West
settlers had been moving steadily westward since the 1600s
in the 1800s, the stream of pioneers turned into a flood
Western Routes
some settlers traveled on the Great Wagon Road across Pennsylvania
some traveled on the Wilderness Road which led through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky
others pushed west to Pittsburgh where they loaded onto flatboats and journeyed down the Ohio River to Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois, Georgia and South Carolina pushed west to Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana,
New York and Pennsylvania
ALL Roads pushed into Northwest Territory
New States
between 1792 and 1819, eight states joined the Union
Kentucky (1792); Tennessee (1796); Ohio (1803); Louisiana (1812); Indiana (1816); Mississippi (1817); Illinois (1818); and Alabama (1819)
Improvements to Roads
settlers faced difficult journeys to the West
roads were narrow trails, had muddy swamps and tree stumps in the road
Turnpikes and Corduroy Roads
in the US, private companies built gravel and stone roads
to pay for these roads, companies collected tolls from travelers
these toll roads were called turnpikes
best road in the US was the Lancaster Turnpike which linked Philadelphia to Lancaster, PA – road was set on a bed of gravel topped with flat stones
in swampy areas, roads were made of logs called corduroy roads
corduroy roads kept wagons from sinking into mud - but noisy and bumpy
The National Road
some states set aside money to improve roads
in 1806, Congress approved funds for a national road-building project
the National Road was to run from Cumberland, MD to Wheeling, VA
The Canal Boom
*** The Erie Canal would provide the Western farmers a new and direct way to SHIP their goods to the port of New York.
This Erie Canal would also be responsible for the creation of new ‘towns’ and ‘cities’ to be built along the canal route. Increasing our new Factory System!!!***
steamboats and better roads brought many improvements but did not help farmers get goods directly to markets in the East
Americans dug canals to meet this need
canals were no more than a few miles long around waterfalls or connecting rivers to lakes
Building the Erie Canal
some New Yorkers had a bold idea to build a canal linking the Great Lakes with the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers
the Erie Canal would let farmers ship goods to the port of New York and bring business to towns along the route
the canal seemed far-fetched to many including Thomas Jefferson:
“Why, sir, you talk of making a canal 350 miles through the wilderness—
it is little short of madness to think of it at this day!”
Thomas Jefferson to Joshua Forman of New York, 1809
An Instant Success
work began in 1817 and was dug by hand by thousands of workers
inventors developed new equipment to speed up the process
by 1825, the huge job of building the Erie Canal was finished
a cannon fired a volley in Buffalo, NY on opening day
town after town fired cannons all the way to NYC – the salute took 80 min!
the Erie Canal was an instant success and the cost of shipping dropped to about one tenth of what it had been
the Erie Canal made NYC a center of commerce which led other states to build canals
these canals created vital economic links between western farms and eastern cities
¿¿ Describe the ‘impact’ of canals on transportation during the early 1800s. ______
Steam Transport
when possible, travelers and freight haulers used river transportation
a flatboat was faster, more comfortable and cost less
river travel had its own problems - moving upstream was difficult
a boat could travel downstream from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in 6 weeks
the return trip took at least 17 weeks!
Fitch and Fulton
a new invention, the steam engine, opened a new era in river travel
John Fitch opened a steam ferry across the Delaware River – few people used it and he went out of business
Robert Fulton launched a steam boat, the Clermont, on the Hudson River
on its 1st run, the Clermont carried passengers from NYC to Albany and back – 300-mile trip took 62 hours – a record at the time!
The Age of Steamboats
Fulton’s success ushered in the age of steamboats
steamboats ferried passengers up and down the Atlantic coast
steamboats on the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri rivers gave farmers and merchants a cheap means of moving goods
steamboat travel could be dangerous – sparks from smokestacks could start fires, captains raced each other and boilers sometimes exploded
between 1811 and 1851, 44 steamboats collided, 166 burned and 200+ exploded
¿¿ How did the steamboat change the river travel ? ______
1. How did settlers travel West in the early 1800s ?
______
2. What steps did Americans take to improve their roads ?
______
3. How did steamboats and canals improve transportation for Americans ?
______
1 of 11.2 PRINTER COPY FEB 2017