American Expansion

1
American Expansion

• An Historical Examination
• 1815 - 1869

2
The Growth of the U.S. 1800 - 1860
3
U.S. 1800
4
U.S. 1803
5
1800-1803
6
1820
7
1830
8
1821 and 1830
9
U.S. 1840
10
U.S. 1850
11
1840 and 1850
12
1860
13
1850 and 1860
14
Transportation to fuel the Growth 1815-1869
Roads, Steamboats, Canals, and Railroads
15
Roads

• Most roads were turnpikes or toll roads.
• Construction began on the first national road in
  1811. It stretched from Maryland across the
  Appalachians to Wheeling Virginia.
• By 1838, it was extended to Vandalia, Illinois.

16
Steamboats

• Steamboats were invented in the early 1800s, but
  it took Robert Fulton to demonstrate the
  commercial possibilities. In 1807, he took the
  Clermont from New York City to Albany on the
  Hudson River.
• By the end of 1807, 17 steamboats operated in the
  U.S. by 1820 there were 69 and by 1855, there
  were 727.
• Between 1820-60, carrying capacity on western
  rivers increased 100 times and steamboats became
  the major form of western transportation.

17
Canals

• In 1816, the U.S. had 100 miles of canals, none
  longer than 28 miles.
• Farmers in New York pressed to build a canal to
  get their products to market in NYC.
  Between1818-1825, the Erie Canal was completed
  and stretched 364 miles from Albany on the Hudson
  River to Buffalo on Lake Erie.
• The canal linked the Atlantic Ocean to the Great
  Lakes.

18
Canals and Highways, 1826-1830

• By 1840, over 3,300 miles of canals were
  completed.
• Transportation costs were greatly reduced in
  1820, cost of shipping a ton of goods from
  Buffalo to NY City was 19 cents a mile the canal
  dropped to price to less than 3 cents a mile.

19
Railroads

• Promontory, Utah, May 10, 1869

20
Railroads 1850 and 1860

• The first railroads appeared in the 1830s, mainly
  to serve as feeder lines to canals, and consisted
  of 13 miles of track.
• By 1840, railroad track in the United States had
  reached almost 3,000 miles by 1850, more than
  9,000 miles by 1860 over 30,000 miles

21
Railroads 1860
22
The Telegraph
The First Telegraphic Message from
California Harper's Weekly, November 23,
1861 Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs
Division
23

• In 1843, the federal government gave Samuel B.
  Morse a grant to build the first telegraph line
  from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. It was
  completed in 1844.
• The "Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860" authorized
  the Secretary of the Treasury to seek bids to
  construct a transcontinental telegraph line.
• The Act appropriated 40,000 a year, for ten
  years, toward the construction and maintenance of
  a line of telegraph between the Atlantic and
  Pacific States.
• In 1861, the Overland Telegraph company began
  building the line to eventually extend to
  California.

24

The Pony Express and the Telegraph
The Pony Express bridged the gap between the East
and West sections during construction. This is
an illustration from Harpers Weekly, November 2,
1867
25
Telegraph - East meets West, 1861
The site where the east and west sections of the
transcontinental telegraph were joined. The east
side of Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah at the
telegraph office.
26
Transcontinental Telegraph Line