Introduction
Good transportation has always been part of the American success story. The ability to move people, goods and services effectively and efficiently was and still is very vital. Transport opened up America for great opportunities. Rail transport opened the rural part of the country for agriculture in places which were not accessible before its construction 1 . The invention of motor vehicles mass production gave Americans freedom to move freely and water transport enabled the transport of people and goods across oceans hence trade thrived. The period between 1900 and 1910 saw the stabilization of the transport industry in America. This paper will look at transport in the stated period.
Rail transport
By 1900 the rail system was quite developed in the US. The total rail mileage was over 193,000 by the same year making it the dominant mode of transport 2 . The steam engine was the only used locomotive by then and it could carry people and goods to almost every part of the country. The rail industry was big contributor to the country’s economy; by the same year it employed over 750,000 workers second only to the agricultural sector 3 . Urban centers had street cars that were rolled on rail line. These were less noisy and confortable means for urban transport.
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The success of the rail transport started declining with the introduction of government regulations between the periods of 1900 to 1910. The Elkins act of 1903, the Hepburn Act of 1906 and the Mann-Elkins act of 1910 were all passed giving the government and its organs more powers to reel the rail road transport which included the locomotive owners to the rail line owners 4 .
The rail road had major disadvantages compared to road transport. Any transportation done on rail could only reach the destination of the railway line. People and goods had to carried on carriages to their final destination. Motor vehicles, on the other hand, could get anyone to their destination faster and without delay. This contributed to the death of rail transport as the dominant mode of transport in the US as time progressed beyond 1910 5 .
Water transport
The beginning of the 20th century started seeing the use of steam engines in ships. Sailing ships were no longer a priority for people travelling by sea because it was slow and heavily dependent on the wind. Within the United States, water travel in the 1900 was heavily used because of lack of good road network 6 . People used carriages in dirt roads which were very uncomfortable. Water transport using boats was frequently used in the urban centers like New York to ferry people and goods from one part of the town to the other. Transport that needed the crossing of a sea or ocean was done using ships. The use of ships was the only way people could cross any sea or ocean at the time. Steam engine in ships considerably reduced the time spent at sea.
The US government needed to further reduce the time spent at sea to carry goods from the east part of the country to the west and vice versa and so the government initiated the most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. The government started the construction of the Panama Canal in 1904. The canal would reduce the distance to travel by sea from, for instance, New York to San Francisco by about 8,000 miles. Any travel to and from those two cities had to be done through the Cape Horn at the south most tip of South Africa. The journey was long and very treacherous. The project was completed in 1914 7 .
Road transport
At the beginning of the century the mostly used mode of transport was walking. Others used carriages, street car or a bicycle to their destinations. Very few people had motor vehicles since it was very expensive to produce them at the time. Only the affluent in society could afford them. In fact, fewer than 8000 motor vehicles existed in the country in the year 1900 8 . The most commonly used mode of transport in the urban centers was the omnibus. Omnibuses could carry more people hence cost effective in terms of cost per passenger.
The first car to be produced by the Ford Motor Company in 1903 was still expensive for average Americans. The Ford Motor Company named it the Ford Model A 9 . In 1908 the Ford Motor Company released the Model T which was not costly to buy thanks to the mass production line invented by the company 10 . The introduction of the model T revolutionized life in America. People had the freedom to move around and were also able to work further and further away from home. More urban centers came up because of increased interconnection 11 . The advent of the motor vehicle into the American society brought the need for high ways and the first high way to be constructed in the US was the Lincoln Highway constructed in 1912 12 .
Air transport
In the period between 1900 and 1910 air transport was practically non-existent. The wright brothers managed to have their first prototype make its first controlled flight in 1903 13 . By the end of the decade the advanced way of covering distance by air was either by gliding or in a hot air balloon.
In the year 1900, the most dominant form of transport was the use of railway line. However, when Ford Motor Company invented mass production of vehicles in 1903 the popularity of rail transport started declining. By the 1910 most of the families in US owned cars. The most dominant way of transporting cargo over long distances still remains the ship up to the present day.
Bibliography
American-Rails.com. The 1900s, Railroads In The 20th Century (n.d). Retrieved from: https://www.american-rails.com/1900s.html
Banham, Russ. The Ford century: Ford Motor Company and the innovations that shaped the world. Artisan Books, 2002.
Carroll, Trent J., and Thomas R. Carroll. "Wright brothers' invention of 1903 propeller and genesis of modern propeller theory." Journal of aircraft 42, no. 1 (2005): 218-223.
Fishlow, Albert. American Railroads and the Transformation of the Ante-bellum Economy. Vol. 127. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
Gallamore, Robert E. Meyer and John R. American Railroads: Decline and Renaissance in the Twentieth Century. Brown, John Howard, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.eh.net/?s=American+railroads+and+the+transformation
History and Politics of Transportation in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.saferoutestoschools.org/documents/Transportation_History.pdf
McCullough, David. The path between the seas: the creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914. Simon and Schuster, 2001.
Voice of America. The History of Transportation in the United States: Ships, Trains, Cars and Planes (n.d). Retrieved from: http://www.manythings.org/voa/history/249.html
Warren, James. Transportation and Communication in Seattle in 1900, 1999. Retrieved from http://www.historylink.org/File/1668.
Yago, Glenn. The decline of transit: urban transportation in German and US cities, 1900-1970. Cambridge University Press, 1984.
1 Fishlow, Albert. American Railroads and the Transformation of the Ante-bellum Economy. Vol. 127. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965
2 American-Rails.com. The 1900s, Railroads In The 20th Century (n.d). Retrieved from: https://www.american-rails.com/1900s.html
3 Ibid
4 History and Politics of Transportation in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.saferoutestoschools.org/documents/Transportation_History.pdf
5 Gallamore, Robert E. Meyer and John R. American Railroads: Decline and Renaissance in the Twentieth Century. Brown, John Howard, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.eh.net/?s=American+railroads+and+the+transformation
6 Voice of America. The History of Transportation in the United States: Ships, Trains, Cars and Planes (n.d). Retrieved from: http://www.manythings.org/voa/history/249.html
7 McCullough, David. The path between the seas: the creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914. Simon and Schuster, 2001.
8 Warren, James. Transportation and Communication in Seattle in 1900, 1999. Retrieved from http://www.historylink.org/File/1668.
9 Banham, Russ. The Ford century: Ford Motor Company and the innovations that shaped the world. Artisan Books, 2002.
10 Ibid
11 Yago, Glenn. The decline of transit: urban transportation in German and US cities, 1900-1970. Cambridge University Press, 1984.
12 Banham, Russ. The Ford century: Ford Motor Company and the innovations that shaped the world. Artisan Books, 2002
13 Carroll, Trent J., and Thomas R. Carroll. "Wright brothers' invention of 1903 propeller and genesis of modern propeller theory." Journal of aircraft 42, no. 1 (2005): 218-223.
