Industrial Revolution Transportation

In the United States the entire infrastructure was effected. Roads, waterways, and railroads were all revolutionized along with the technology used on all three of these methods to travel. Roads in the United States before the Industrial Revolution were scarce and not in good condition. People struggled to travel roads because of all the bumps and carriages and animals had problems traveling. Congress recognized this issue and in 1817 authorized the construction of the national road. Throughout the Industrial revolution more and more higher quality roads were made, which made a large impact on travel time from place to place. Waterways were revolutionized especially east of the Mississippi River. Before the revolution traveling by water was

The most famous, the Erie Canal led the way in the creation of canals. It was linked from Albany to Buffalo New York. It helped lower the cost of transportation of materials, it made the transportation faster, and even helped with irrigation. The Erie Canal also linked farms in the West to markets in the East. This led to a growth in agriculture and growth of the national markets, otherwise known as the Market Revolution. The Erie Canal revolutionized transportation and set the path for states to begin building their own canals to promote industrialization (The Industrial Revolution 1). The next method being railroads, railroads were probably affected the most out of any of them all. Early railroads could only carry goods so far and were not very advanced, but railroads sparked the interest of inventors and engineers. They really began to take off in 1826 when a group of businessmen created the B&O railroad. After witnessing the success of the B&O railroad many of other business groups started creating railroads. Though many problems arose like tracks were too wide, or certain trains could not go on certain tracks. That problem was solved by Robert Livingston Steven by designing the T-shaped

Francis Cabot Lowell took it a step further. In 1810, Francis Cabot Lowell visited the textile mills in England. He took note of the machinery in England that was not available in the United States, and he sketched and memorized details. One machine in particular, the power loom, could weave thread into cloth. He took his ideas to the United States and formed the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1812. With the money he made from this company, he built a water-powered mill. Francis Cabot Lowell is credited for building the first factory where raw cotton could be made into cloth under one roof. This process, also known as the "Waltham-Lowell System" reduced the cost of cotton. By putting out cheaper cotton, Lowell's company quickly became successful. After Lowell brought the power loom to the United States, the new textile industry boomed. The majority of businesses in the United States by 1832 were in the textile industry (Industrial Revolution 1). Francis Lowell used young women for his work force. He took advantage of them and payed them lower wages than he would pay a man. This worked in his favor because the girls wanted to show maturity and they worked very