U.S. History
Chapter 12: Industrial Growth in the North
Section 3: The Transportation Revolution
New Ways to Travel
• Transportation Revolution
– Period of rapid growth in the
speed & convenience in travel
– Created a boom in business
New Ways to Travel
• Roads, canals built
• New inventions
–Steamboat
–Railroad
New Ways to Travel
• Shipping times reduced
– 1817: shipping cargo from
Cincinnati, OH to New York,
NY took two months
– 1850s: One week
New Ways to Travel
• Shipping costs reduced
– Overland: $100 to ship a load
of goods by land across NY
state
– Canal: $5
The Steamboat
• Steamboat: one of the
first breakthroughs of the
transportation revolution
The Steamboat
• Robert Fulton:
inventor who
developed a
steampowered boat
Robert Fulton
The Steamboat
• 1803:
tested a
steamboat
in France
Fulton demonstrating his
steamboat to Napoleon
Bonaparte
The Steamboat
• Clermont: full-sized
commercial steamboat
The Steamboat
• Advantages:
– Move quickly against the current
– Did not rely on wind power
– Shorter travel time, reduced
costs
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
• Thomas Gibbons:
operated a
steamboat
between NJ &
Manhattan using a
federal license
• Did not have a
state license from
NY
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
• Aaron Ogden: had
been granted a
monopoly on the
steamboat
business by NY
state
Aaron Ogden
• Ogden sues
Gibbons
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
• Supreme Court rules in favor of
Gibbons
– Assertion of Congress’ power to
regulate interstate commerce
– Federal law overruled state law
American Railroads
• 1800s: Steampowered trains
developed in
Britain
• 1830: Peter
Cooper builds
the Tom Thumb
Peter Cooper
American Railroads
• Steam-powered trains became popular
after Cooper raced the Tom Thumb
against a horse-drawn railcar
American Railroads
• 1840: 2000 miles of track laid
• Engineers built faster, more
powerful locomotives
• Accidents common because
engineers would travel too fast
American Railroads
• 1860: 30,000 miles of track
laid
• Shipping goods to distant
markets
• Helped cities grow