The decade 1880-1890, 27.--Phenomenal railway expansion, 28.--Transcontinental trade, 28.--Speculation rampant, 29.--Growth of western manufactures, 30.--Rise of the Gulf ports, 31.--Canadian competition, 33.--General résumé and forecast, 34.
Public land grants, 35.--Direct financial assistance, 37.--History of state aid, 39.--Federal experience with transcontinental roads, 40.
The possibility of a unified nation of ninety odd million souls, spread over a vast territory of three million square miles,--three-fourths of the area of Europe,--was greatly enhanced at the outset by the geographical configuration of the continent of North America. It was fortunate, indeed, that the original thirteen colonies were strictly hemmed in along the Atlantic seaboard, thus being protected against premature expansion. At the same time the north and south direction of this narrow coastal strip, with its variety of climates, soils, natural resources and products, brought about a degree of intercourse and mutual reliance of the utmost importance. The mere exchange of the dried fish and rum of New England, for the sugar, tobacco, molasses and rice of the southern colonies, paved the way for an acquaintance and intellectual intercourse necessary to the development of national spirit. Throughout the colonial period, the protected coast waters and navigable rivers as far inland as the "fall line," rendered the problem of long distance transportation relatively easy. For everything went by water. Population was compelled to develop the country somewhat intensively, by reason of the difficulty of westward expansion. But this population after the Revolution began to press more and more insistently against the mountain barriers; so that the need of purely artificial means of transportation at right angles to the seaboard became ever more apparent.
The period from the Revolution down to 1829, when Stephenson's "Rocket" made its first successful run between Liverpool and Manchester, attaining a speed of twenty-nine miles per hour, was characterized in the United States by increasing interest in canals and toll roads as means of communication. As involving less expenditure of capital, the highways were naturally developed first. In 1756 the first regular stage between New York and Philadelphia covered the distance in three days, soon to be followed by the "Flying Machine," which made it in two-thirds of that time. Six days were consumed in the stage trip from New York to Boston. But by 1790 a considerable network of toll roads covered the northern territory,--systems which, as in Kentucky by 1840, attained a length of no less than four hundred miles. Post roads linked up such remote points as St. Louis, New Orleans, Nashville, Charleston, and Savannah by 1830. Pennsylvania had made an early beginning in 1806; and by 1822 had subscribed nearly two million dollars to fifty-six turnpike companies and wellnigh a fifth of that sum toward the construction of highway bridges. Most of these roads throughout the country, however, were private enterprises, and, even where aided by the state governments, were imperfectly built and worse maintained, disjointed and roundabout.