Transport in USA

COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT

The vast network of rivers and lakes in the eastern part of the United States has been of great importance to the economic development of the nation. The Mississippi and its tributaries are all easily navigable and the five Great Lakes, four of which are shared with Canada, are linked to this system by a series of canals. These waterways, together with pipelines and railways, are important for the transport of bulk freight.

There is now a vast railway network extending over almost the entire country. Railway transport has been largely replaced by air transport for long-distance passenger travel, as there is a highly developed network of airline services connecting most towns of importance (and it costs less to travel by air than by train even on comparatively short journeys). Railways are still important for the carriage of certain types of freight, however.

Cars and trucks are the most important means of transport for both passengers and goods, and an interstate highway system has been built which provides a route to nearly every major city. On many of these roads a toll has to be paid and the top speed limit anywhere is 55 miles per hour.

FROM THE HISTORY OF TRAVEL

Americans are a restless people, always on the move and eager to get where they are going as quickly and conveniently as possible. It was not until well after the Revolution, however, with the need for opening up the lands to the West, that the Nation began to develop an integrated system for transporting people and goods.

For most of the first century of settlement, westward travel was limited to the winding Indian trails, which in a few places were widened to make primitive roads. Only the venturesome hunters and trappers pushed into the heavily forested mountains.

On the water it was a different story; the rivers, inlets, and bays provided the easiest and safest means of transportation. Farmers floated their produce — wheat, corn, salted pork, logs, cotton, and tobacco — downriver to market on flatboats and rafts. Small boats and log canoes carried people to church and on visits to neighbours or to market. Many New Englanders gave up cultivating their rocky lands and turned to the sea in sturdy fishing boats to harvest the haddock and cod. Merchants, trader and passengers traveled between Boston, New York, and Baltimore by boat.

Land travel increased slowly in the early 1700s. A horseback trip from New York to Boston took at least 7 days. As more Indian trails were widened into rough dirt roads, vehicles began to appear. By the mid-1700s four- and six-horse carriages with coachmen were common among the prosperous Virginia planters.

The concept of using Federal funds to build interregional roads was established in 1806 under President Jefferson, and the so called National Road, which eventually linked Maryland with Illinois, was began in 1811. The transcontinental railroad, finished in 1869, linked the two oceans and unified the continent. So, by the late 1890s, it was already possible to travel from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast by rail.

Although Americans did not invent that mechanical marvel, the automobile, they made it their own by finding ways to build it, improve it, mass-produce it, and sell it. Speed and movement soon became national obsessions.

The Wright brothers made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, some 5 years before Henry Ford built his first "Model T" in 1908, but it took World Wars I and II to accelerate the evolution of the airplane.

When all the technical challenges of travel on and around the Earth had been met, a new breed of traveler shot for the Moon, and made it. Since the first Apollo Moon landing on July 20, 1969, Americans have sent men to the Moon five times. And scientists, no longer earth-bound, have lived and worked for weeks aboard American Skylabs orbiting high above the Earth.

But though time and distance have been conquered, solutions to the more difficult problems of safe, clean, comfortable travel still lie ahead.

WHEELS FOR ALL MANKIND

In many ways the tale of Henry Ford and the product associated with his name is a microcosm of American economic history — a story of trial and error, of innovation and ultimate success.

A farmer with a penchant for mechanical things, the young Ford quit school at 17, began building small steam engines, and j drove his first bicycle-wheeled, engine-driven device in 1896.

It was a primitive affair, much simpler than cars already on the roads in Europe, and it was not until 1901 that the stubborn tinker, after several false starts, got enough financial support to start the Henry Ford Automobile Company. Financial disputes arose and Ford left. Two years later, with new backers, he established the Ford Motor Company. (When in 1919 Ford bought all outstanding shares, original investors reaped heavy rewards; a share that cost $100 was then worth $260000.)

Ford was convinced that he could produce a good car at a reasonable price, and on October 1, 1908, he realized his dream with the unveiling of the Ford Model T. This was a straightforward, sturdy machine made of the best metals young Henry could obtain and propelled by a single 4-cylinder, 22-horsepower, 167-cubic-inch engine. As early as 1913, his company was able to produce an astonishing 1000 Ts per day.

The T was an instant success and within months was outselling other American cars combined. What is more, Ford made good his pledge to reduce the T's price. From $850 in 1909, the price dropped steadily to $260 for some models by. 1924. By then, however, other manufacturers' inexpensive cars with better methods of changing gears and more speed were outperforming the T on America's improved roads.

Recognizing this, Ford and his engineers went to work, and in late 1927 they were ready with the company's second breakthrough — the Model A. The car caught America's imagination, and like its predecessor, the Model T, was an instant success. There was nothing revolutionary about the engine, but the car's classical good looks and sturdiness endeared it to millions. Today the Model A Restorers Club has thousands of members, who proudly drive their prizes.

So in the 1920s, the car people called a "baby Lincoln" took America by storm. Some 4,5 million Model A's were built in 5 years, and even the most expensive version sold for under $600.

But times were changing. The Detroit manufacturers realized that the mass market was not only growing but would buy a wide variety of cars. This trend was encouraged by General Motors, which began to make annual model changes, supported by intensive advertising campaigns. The Detroit design syndrome was soon established. Each year the new models had to be sufficiently different from the ones before, to set them clearly apart (so that one's neighbours would be sure to know that a car was new); yet it could not be so drastically changed as to put it out of character with previous models.

Today the Big Three — General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler — manufacture many different products. But the automotive industry owes an enduring debt to a mechanical genius named Henry Ford, the man who first put Americans on wheels.