Transportation In The 19th Century Essay

In the mid 1800s, the start of reconstruction was on the rise. That led to eventually expanding cities and making huge improvements. Since expansion was on the rise due to all the industrial smoke hovering over the cities, people wanted to live further away from all the pollution. Living further away from the pollution meant living further from work. So instead of walking miles to work now, people had to think of something that would help the commute. Companies were the main suppliers for transportation.
In 1829, the idea of horse drawn Omnibuses flooded into New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. An omnibus was a large, horse drawn vehicle that held up to about 42 people. Although the omnibus was introduced to the public for transportation, they also presented some issues. For one, horses couldn’t be used more than a couple of hours because they need to rest. So the companies running these omnibuses had to keep a large amount of horses per vehicle at a time which was costly. Second, horses produce lots of manure and the companies had to hire people to follow behind the omnibuses and clean up after the horse. Not only costly but the smell of horse manure is not pleasant what so ever and it created pollution.

Soon after in the late 1830s, Steam Trains were introduced to the public as a source of transportation.

The discomfort, loudness, pollution and slow speed soon led to the idea of electric street cars in 1888. The street car seemed to be the most idealistic mode of transportation except for the fact they can’t go up hills. To fix that problem, the cable car was introduced in New York. Being affordable and able to go uphill, cable cars still exist today as a mode of transportation, mainly in San Francisco. The next innovation of mass transportation was the Motor Bus in the 1920s. General Motors were the main guys who were producing

them.
Cities were continuing to expand ….. The last innovation was the automobile. The Ford Motor Company introduced one of the most famous and influential products in the history of American business; the Ford Model T. The last the Model T rolled off the assembly line in 1927. At first, only the wealthy families were able to purchase a car and the cars were used mostly for recreational use. Producing the cars with an assembly line brought the cost of the cars down and more people were able to buy.
Transportation was a pivotal moment for us and transportation innovations inspired a new sense of connectedness among Americans, encouraging a wider sense of nationalism. It allowed the economy to grow and expand. From the horse drawn omnibus to today’s automobiles shows how inventive we are. Although transportation produces carbon emission and air pollution, it’s not as severe as living in the industrial revolution.