The Impact Of Road Infrastructure On Economic Development

📌Category: Economics
📌Words: 808
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 22 January 2022

Roads and canals gave way to a more prosperous America. Entering the 19th century, the United States of America was mainly filled with small roads, canals, and a few privately owned turnpikes. The development of transportation at the time worked for trade and travel but was not efficient. At the beginning of the 1800s, shipping costs were high and the time was lengthy. Roads and canals affected many parts of the United States in the 19th century, as with the Cumberland Road, which built towns all along its route, the Erie Canal, which boosted and led to a more prosperous New York, and the West, which was able to grow and bloom off of the road and canals built to connect it with the rest of America.

Major roads open up pathways for trade, commerce, and travel, which supports and builds businesses and the economy. Plenty of small roads were built throughout the United States, but a major one is Cumberland Road, also called the National Road. The road was built from St. Louis, Missouri, to Cumberland, Maryland, running 621.4 miles long. This turnpike was the only extensive road to be funded by the government, eventually being turned over to individual states for maintenance and tolls. Many small towns and villages popped up in the wake of the Cumberland Road construction, which welcomed and housed the "thousands of travelers heading west... to settle the rich land of the Ohio River Valley." (K. Weiser, 2020, para.4) By having so many people coming through, many of the towns became hubs for industry and business. Many of them were places that housed and fed travelers, such as inns or taverns, some became transportation, like “Uniontown [being] the headquarters for three major stagecoach lines which carried passengers over the National Road”.(K. Weiser, 2020, para.4) Even though the Cumberland Road helped build a number of towns, and provided desirable trade routes, it lost popularity when an increasing number of canals were built.

Canals quickly became one of the main ways of trade as they were fast and cost exponentially less than bringing cargo over land, as more could fit on one ship at a time. The Erie Canal is one of the most successful ones. The canal aided in New York becoming "the nation’s leading commercial port and well established as the country’s financial and trade capital." (National Geographic Society, 2019, para.5) West New York saw loads of farmers arrive when the canal was first built, as the cost of shipping was incredible compared to overland transport. As well as most of the agricultural trade being rerouted from traveling down the Mississippi river to New Orleans, to going through New York as the canal gave access to ports on the Atlantic, giving New York the majority of the agricultural trade. The Erie canal brought trade from all over to New York, as even small towns near the canal saw an increase in trade and population. As Paul Volpe states, "Between 1820 and 1850, the population of Rochester exploded, from 1,502 to 36,403 and Buffalo ballooned from just over 2,000 to 42,261." (para. 6) Both Rochster and Buffalo were tiny towns given the shock of life by the canal, allowing them to flourish and prosper, helping New York grow in power. The Erie Canal was not just a crutch to help New York, it was a pylon supporting it during the early 1800s.

The Erie Canal was also an artery for the West. When the canal was first built, farmers moved to Western New York for access to the canal, but after a bit, farmers learned they could sell their infertile land for a greater quantity of fertile land in the Midwest. Agriculture became the heart of the west as cities expanded. "Wheat production in the west had expanded exponentially, from 14 thousand bushels in 1826 to eight million bushels in 1840." (Volpe, para. 11) A look at the wheat amounts during this time can give a look at the increase that took place as trading on the Erie Canal heightened. The Erie Canal wasn’t the first major transportation system to reach the West. When the Midwest was a new part of the United States, starting in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, there was relatively no way to get there, that’s why the Cumberland Road was seen as the first gateway to the West. The Cumberland Road welcomed “many thousands of settlers going westward in heavily loaded wagons. “(Robert McNamara, 2019, para.18) The road provided a route from the Ohio Valley to the Atlantic for trade and a set traveling road with taverns along the route, thus starting the steady migration to the West.

The Erie Canal was the lifeline of New York in the 1800s, building trade, commerce, business, and agriculture. The 19th century was filled with the development of transportation enhancements, with major roads and canals being established throughout the United States. By the end of the 1800s, the transport was cheap and the traveling time was relatively short. Trade within the states increased dramatically, bringing more people to the midwest and opening up more jobs. Roads and canals played a major part in the growth of westward expansion as well as the development and enrichment of many cities in the north.

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