The 10 means of transportation that changed America

In 1620, about 100 passengers set sail on the Mayflower, a merchant ship that usually carried goods, to start a life in the New World. They left England in September and in November landed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, putting the first stone in the foundation of the future American Nation.

The trip lasted two long months full of storms and perils. Finally, the ship, which was intended to land in Virginia, spotted the coastline up North in New England. The Mayflower pilgrims decided to stay in the area previously named Plymouth by famous explorer John Smith. During the first winter, the Mayflower served as a source of shelter. Although only half of the Pilgrims survived, they eventually founded the Plymouth Colony, celebrated the first American Thanksgiving with the Pokanoket people, and were able to establish a self-sufficient economy based on hunting, farming, and trading.

Image: William Halsall, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Before the invention of trains and automobiles, animal power was the main form of transportation. People, goods, and even mail would travel by horse, donkey, oxen, and pulled coaches and wagons, connecting cities with rural parts of the country. In the United States, the carriage era started in the late 17th century and lasted until the early 1900s when the automobile replaced horse-drawn vehicles.

The stagecoach, in particular, was the main public vehicle responsible for the conquest of the American West. It traveled along predetermined routes and had stops every 12 or 50 miles where people could rest and grab a bite to eat and horses could be changed. Moving goods and people throughout the territory meant the growth of cities, the settling of rural areas, and the creation of wealth. In this sense, carriages played a key role in the transportation revolution that transformed American life forever.

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Although steamboats began to be developed in the late 1700s by the Scottish engineer James Watt, and that John Fitch was technically the first to build a steamboat in the United States in 1787, the North River Steamboat would be the one to make it into the history books.

This boat, also known as The Clermont, was designed by American inventor Robert Fulton. On August 17, 1807, this 142-foot-long vessel left New York City for Albany, constituting the first commercial steamboat service in the world. With a group of special guests aboard, the trip up the Hudson River took a total of 32 hours, at about 5 miles per hour. After this inaugural expedition, Fulton continued to build more boats, improving engine and propulsion design and making the steamboat a practical means of transportation. The success of The Clermont certainly changed river traffic and trade on major American rivers for years to come.

Image: Samuel Ward Stanton (d1912), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There’s no doubt that trains had a significant role in shaping the landscape of the country. The origins of trains can be found in the ancient world, back when causeways and wooden rails were used to guide wagons. However, it would not be until the invention of the steam locomotive in the early 1800s that the history of transportation would be forever changed, spurring an industrial revolution around the world. And The United States was no exception.

The construction of new factories drove the need for materials to be transported over large distances, and railway travel provided the perfect solution. The concept of constructing a railroad in the U.S. was first conceived in 1812 by Colonel John Stevens. Yet, the first American railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was built in 1827. For the next 50 years, the government would issue grants to build railroads across the country, which became a very lucrative investment for companies, leading to economic growth and the development of new towns and cities.

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Did you know that the cable car was invented in San Francisco in the late 1800s? It was developed by Andrew Smith Hallidie based on mining systems and is a symbol of the city still today. Clay Street Hill Railroad began public service on September 1, 1873, and it was an instant success. Other companies followed suit and launched their versions of Hallidie's patented system in the following years, totaling 53 miles of track across the city.

Later, although the electric street car, a lot cheaper to build and maintain, became the vehicle of choice for city transit, cable cars continued to be better equipped for steep hills. In 1947 the city Mayor urged to "get rid of all cable lines" leading a committee to launch a public campaign to save this iconic vehicle. Even celebrities rallied for the cause and ultimately the cable car system survived the attempt, specifically because of its great cultural value, especially among the thousands of tourists who visit San Francisco every year.

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In 1878, Civil War veteran Colonel Albert A. Pope, inspired by a British bike he saw at the Philadelphia World’s Fair, hired a sewing machine company to make the first American bicycle. The brand went on to be called Columbia, and by 1888 was manufacturing about 5,000 high-quality bikes a year. However, for a couple of years, it would not be seen as a means of transportation but as pure entertainment.

Later, with the development of the British Rover safety bike, bicycles were no longer limited to athletes and the brave. Pope started selling these easier-to-ride vehicles and the American bicycle industry finally took off in 1890. By the beginning of the 20th century, 1 million bikes were produced in the U.S. yearly and people were even riding them to work every day.

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Few people know that the first successfully American manufactured car was actually developed by bicycle makers. In the Autumn of 1893, brothers Charles and Frank Duryea road-tested the first gasoline-powered automobile in Chicopee, Massachusetts. It was, in fact, an old horse-drawn buggy into which the brothers installed a 4 HP, single-cylinder gasoline engine.

By 1899 there were around thirty companies manufacturing cars in the U.S. One of the most representative staples of the history of automotive manufacturing in the country is, no doubt about it, the Ford Model T. This "affordable" car was intended for the American middle class and it was first produced in 1908 in Detroit. Within days of its release, over 15,000 Ford cars were sold and the popularity of this iconic American company is still relevant today.

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The first subway in America was built during the second phase of the Industrial Revolution in Boston, Massachusetts in 1897. This cutting-edge mode of transport was possible thanks to the invention of the electric motor by Frank Sprague in 1866. But, why Boston? In the late 19th century, bustling Boston had a street congestion problem due to overcrowding and frequent blizzards and needed an out-of-the-box solution.

City officials agreed the best thing to do in a city with narrow colonial streets was to build an underground subway. Finally, on September 1, 1897, a four-track subway line between Boylston Street and Park Street was opened to the public. Additional lines and stations have been added throughout the following centuries, ushering in a new era in American public transportation.

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On December 17, 1903, a powered airplane invented by brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first sustained flight over the skies of North Carolina. The Wright Flyer —also known as the _Kitty Hawk_— was a single-place biplane that managed to fly 852 ft on its fourth attempt before it was blown over on landing. The aircraft was later repaired but never flew again —although you can now visit it at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

After this exceptional achievement by the Wright brothers, the progress of American aviation never ceased to amaze. For example, in 1910 the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line started to operate and although it lasted only three months, it is now considered the United States’ first airline. By 1918 the U.S. Post Office was using airplanes to transport mail across the country. Finally, in 1958 Pan American ushered in the Jet Age with the iconic Boeing 707.

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From the 1950s onwards, the Soviet Union and the United States embarked on a space race that made possible an unprecedented program of scientific exploration. On April 12, 1961

the Soviets managed to send the first person into space. In response, just 23 days after Yuri Gagarin, the first American man entered space aboard the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule. Alan Shepard’s trip lasted only 15 minutes and 28 seconds but it was more than enough to mark the beginning of an unprecedented revolution. Who would have thought that only 8 years later we would be transporting humans to the moon?

The story of Apollo 11 is well known, yet it deserves a special place in the history of American transportation, which is by no means limited to the Earth. Without the development of space shuttles, it would be impossible to imagine the future of transportation, a future that will surely be defined by the conquest of the unknown.

Image: Project Apollo Archive, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons