Unit 9: Westward Expansion Lesson 1: Crossing the Appalachians

3. money-making opportunities Why did so many Americans & newcomers from Europe move to the frontier? For new opportunities! Most importantly, for: 1. more space 2. farmland 3. money-making opportunities

A primary goal of many pioneers was to find… inexpensive land with rich soil

Why was rich soil so important? And what was wrong with the soil in the East? Nothing, at first But farmers back then didn’t know much about preserving soil’s nutrients & preventing erosion, so they had worn out the soil on their original farms

When the soil became thin, they simply packed up, moved west, & started another farm

How did these farm families get to the West?

How did these families survive once they got to their new land? Their 2 most important pieces of equipment were the ax & the rifle What would the ax have been for? To clear trees from the land so they could plant on it, and to build cabins & furniture

What would the rifle have been for? Hunting & protection

What routes did everyone take to get to the West? In 1775, Daniel Boone led a group of 30 men from Virginia through the Appalachian Mountains & into central Kentucky

Wilderness Road, and became the main road to the West Daniel Boone’s path through the Appalachians became known as the Wilderness Road, and became the main road to the West By 1800, about 20,000 settlers traveled the rocky, primitive trail to settle south of the Ohio River  Primitive video game

His was only one of several paths to the West around that time Some families crossed the Appalachians further to the north Some combined the use of land routes and rivers to get to their destinations

Improving Transportation Systems The increasing numbers of people moving west made it clear that Americans needed reliable transportation systems The rise of industry & an increase in agricultural production also encouraged improvements in transportation Why?

People wanted, cheap, quick transportation to get raw materials to factories & goods to market Cheap transportation 

Between 1800 & 1830, several private companies started to build roads In NY & PA, these companies built private roads called turnpikes

What’s a Turnpike? It’s a toll road (or used to be a toll road) Originally, the turnpikes/roads that the private companies built had spiked poles (pikes) that blocked the road like gates When travelers paid a toll (the charge for using the road) the toll keepers turned the pikes aside & let them continue The toll money paid for building the roads

In 1806, Congress approved gov’t funds to pay for building the National Road Interestingly, construction didn’t begin until 1811 because Jefferson had a concern about building a national road The Constitution didn’t say anything about the gov’t being allowed to build roads

The National Road The $7 million project took 7 years to complete It had a crushed-stone surface & stone bridges It connected Cumberland, MD with Wheeling, VA (now WV)

As pioneers moved further west, so did the National Road In 1830, Congress voted to extend the road to Columbus, OH, and later to Indianapolis, IN By 1852, the road had reached Vandalia, IL

Special Features of the National Road The road could be travelled in all kinds of weather because the crushed-stone surface allowed water to drain This way, wagon wheels didn’t get stuck in ruts & potholes Plus, the road wasn’t nearly as dusty or muddy as many others

What about when travelers got hungry or tired? Taverns & inns started to pop up all along the road

Although the number of roads increased during the early 1800s, rivers were still the country’s main means of transportation Before the 1820s, most travelers found it easy to sail or float downstream The problem was getting back upriver, against the current

In 1785, inventor John Fitch came up with the idea for a steam-powered boat, but he couldn’t get the money to actually build one In 1807, Robert Fulton took some of Fitch’s designs & built the first steamboat called the Clermont

The Clermont could travel 150 miles from NYC up the Hudson River to Albany in 32 hours It could make it back down the river in only 30 hours

Pretty soon, steamboats were carrying people & goods along the Mississippi River & the Great Lakes, all of which became important trade routes within the U.S.

For shipping heavy goods, using a water route was much more efficient than using roads On a good road, it took 4 horses to pull a 1.5 ton load It only took 2 horses to pull a canal boat loaded with 50 tons

The only problem with this was… rivers weren’t always conveniently located To carry large loads at a small cost via waterways, Americans had to start building canals

A canal is a channel dug out & filled with water to allow boats to cross a stretch of land Canals connected natural waterways, allowing boats & barges to travel between those bodies of water

The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, is probably the most famous of the canals built in the early 1800s It connected the Great Lakes with the Mohawk & Hudson Rivers, and finally NYC It was 363 miles long & 4 ft deep

Much like road travelers, canal travelers had to pay tolls These tolls helped the states earn back the money they’d spent building the canals

Benefits Brought by the Erie Canal Lowered the cost of moving a ton of goods from 30 cents to less than 2 cents per mile Dramatically cut travel time Sped up settlement of the Great Lakes region (people from the NYC area used it to move west)

Provided the easiest, quickest, cheapest way to send goods from the Northeast to the West Because of this, NYC became the major center for shipping goods to the Great Lakes area Ground Zero Cams

Success The success of the Erie Canal led to the development of many others PA had a canal system connecting Philadelphia to other parts of the state Other canals linked Great Lakes ports with the Ohio & Mississippi Rivers