Technological advances in the 19th century helped build a transportation network vital to the nation’s growth and unity. Canals traversed unnavigable portions of rivers and coastal waterways. Steam engines powered boats and trains.
Map of New Jersey and Pennsylvania Exhibiting the Post Offices, Post Roads, Canals, Rail Roads, & C., by David H. Burr, 1839
Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress
Transportation Routes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 1839
Building the First Communications System
Post roads, so called because mail was carried over them, date to colonial times. They were the major land routes linking towns. So vital were these links that both houses of Congress established a Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads as one of their first standing committees. As mail was the only means of long-distance communication until the invention of the telegraph in the 1840s, the speed of mail delivery affected every citizen.
Technological advances in the 19th century helped build a transportation network vital to the nation’s growth and unity. Canals traversed unnavigable portions of rivers and coastal waterways. Steam engines powered boats and trains.
Map of New Jersey and Pennsylvania Exhibiting the Post Offices, Post Roads, Canals, Rail Roads, & C., by David H. Burr, 1839
Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress
