From Mexico State Transporting United


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From Mexico State Transporting United

From Mexico State Transporting United

One of the most remarkable things about Americans, according to travelers from Europe in the first part of the 19th century, was how much they moved about. Not only did they routinely travel long distances to attend services in their churches and to shop in their markets, but they also changed residences almost as routinely. And not only did they invent new methods of transportation during the first half of the century, but they also made significant improvements in many of the old methods. Between 1800 and 1850 the physical territory of the United States had quadrupled in size; but measured in terms of travel time, the country had become much smaller.

The Mobility of Americans

A Boston newspaper noted in 1828 that while in America the whole population seemed to be in motion, in Europe millions of people had never been beyond the sound of their own parish bell. Even in rural towns, thirty-five to forty percent of families counted in each regular census had changed their residence by the time of the next census ten years later; in many cities, the rate exceeded fifty percent. Part of this mobility was a result of a revolution in transportation: the first half of the 19th century saw the inventions of the steamboat and the railroad, and the development of canals. But there was also an evolution in traditional methods of travel: roads were widened and extended, and carriages and wagons were designed to carry more people more comfortably over greater distances. In the 1780s a traveler typically took four to six days to go from Boston to New York; in the 1830s a stagecoach could make the trip in a day and a half; and by the 1840s a train cut the travel time to half a day.