Daniel Boone opened a trail through the Appalachian Mtns. Known as the Wilderness Road.

Before long, some western territories had population large enough to apply for statehood. Kentucky 1792 Tennessee 1796 Ohio 1803 Louisiana 1812 Indiana 1816 Mississippi 1817 Illinois 1818 Alabama 1819

Private companies built the first major roads in the U.S. Companies collected money to pay for the roads 1

The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road 339.1

The road's construction marked the beginning of organized road improvement following the American Revolution. The road opened the territory northwest of the Ohio River and provided cheap transportation between the coast cities and the new Republic's "bread basket" region surrounding Lancaster. By 1843, railroads and canals drove stagecoach and Conestoga wagon companies into a drastic decline.

If the ground was soft and squelchy, short sawn logs could be laid transversely across a road bed. The resulting pattern of logs looked like the ribs in corduroy fabric, hence its name. 2

3 Congress first financed road and ran from Maryland into Illinois

Revolutionized travel in the West Gave farmers and merchants a cheap means of moving goods 4

Development of the Steamboat John Fitch showed how a steam engine could power a boat. He opened a ferry service on the Delaware River, but few people used it, and he went out of business. Robert Fulton launched his own steamboat, the Clermont, on the Hudson River. It carried passengers from New York City to Albany in record time. Soon, steamboats were carrying passengers up and down the Atlantic coast. Steamboats carried passengers and goods on the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri rivers. Henry Shreve designed a flat-bottomed steamboat for shallow western rivers.

Canals Improved Transportation 5 Farmers sent goods by canals from west to the east

5

6 Artificial channel filled with water that allows boats to cross a stetch of land, from Buffalo to Albany

7 1) Shipping goods dropped to 1/10 th of its original cost 2) Made New York City a center of commerce 3) Led to other states to build canals

7 6 Robert Fulton’s steamboat aided the economic development of the United States by — F reducing traffic in the nation’s ocean harbors G making transportation on rivers more efficient Hending American dependence on European shipping Jserving as a method of connecting California and the East Coast