The Worlds Transportation Systems

By Cindy Downes
Today, we jet across the Atlantic Ocean in two hours; take luxury vacations on cruise ships
equipped with hotels, swimming pools, and mini-golf. We drive our automobiles through
man-made tunnels under miles of water and through the highest mountains. How did we
get this transportation system of ours? Who invented these trains, planes, ships, and
automobiles? What did it take to build the miles and miles of railroad track and highways
that crisscross towns and countries all over the globe?
The worlds transportation system was built over thousands of years by the creativity and
hard work of men and women from all over the world. Although we dont know the exact
dates of the earliest achievements, transportation probably began with simple, stone-paved
streets like those built in the city of Ur around 4000 B.C. and the wheeled carts of ancient
Mesopotamia, which were developed around 2500 B.C. By the end of the Roman Empire,
more than 240,000 miles of roads crisscrossed the Empire.
Nothing comes free, even transportation; so, in 1730, road builders in England and Wales
began to charge tolls for access to roads. Americans copied the idea for the National Road,
an 800-mile link from Maryland to Illinois. Families living nearby were hired to collect the
tolls, six cents per twenty sheep and twelve cents per coach or wagon.
Ships
Meanwhile, water travel was also evolving. We know from the Bible that large ships were
being built as far back as the days of Noah (Genesis, chapter 6). The first boats were
probably dugout canoes and rafts, both of which were made from trees.
Between 4,000 B.C. and 1,000 A.D., the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Romans, Vikings, and
Chinese perfected the design of the sailing vessel for trade and war, making it stronger by
adding metal belts and faster by designing the galley, an oared vessel powered by up to
sixty men (who were most likely slaves). The Chinese developed a rudder for steering,
battens for sails, and bulkheads to keep the boat afloat.
In the 1800s, flatboats became a popular means of travel for ordinary people. Families paid
$35 to ship themselves and all their belongings down the Ohio and Mississippi River on
these raft-like barges. During the three-month trip, they entertained themselves with
stories and fiddle playing. The women cooked the meals and sewed, while the children
swam in the river. When hostile Indians attacked, the family would retreat into a box-like
structure for protection. The flatboat could travel only downstream, however, so at the end
of the trip, the boat was sold for use as firewood or lumber with which the settlers would
build their new homes.
Around this same time, Americans developed the Clipper ship, which was used to take
emigrants to California during the 1849 Gold Rush. Although these were the fastest ships at
the time, they were also dependent on wind power. In 1807, Robert Fulton introduced his
steamboat, the Clermont, which made its maiden voyage from Albany to New York City at 5
mph, without any assistance from wind. A short time later, the British built the first steampowered ship to cross the Atlantic. Now the challenge was to increase the speed of these
steam-powered boats. John Ericsson, a Swedish-American inventor and mechanical
engineer, solved the problem with his improved version of the screw propeller. Biting
through water like a screw bites into wood, Ericssons twin screw propeller made ships
faster than ever.

Today, ships are not only fast, but they are bigger and more efficient. Todays ocean liners
have supermarkets and theaters, supertankers are capable of transporting 2,000,000,000
metric tons of oil a year, and nuclear-powered submarines like the Royal Navys Astute are
capable of going without refueling for its full twenty-five years of service!
Trains
The invention of the railroad did for land transportation what steam did for shipping. It
made land transportation faster, cheaper, and more efficient. The first railroads were tracks
on which carriages were moved by wind or horses.
After the invention of the first steam-powered locomotive in 1804 by Richard Trevithick of
England, it was only a matter of time before this technology was added to railroads. In
1830, Peter Cooper, an American industrialist, is credited with the first American-built
steam locomotive, which was so small its boiler tubes were made of rifle barrels. Onlookers
cheered as the Tom Thumb, as it was named, and a gray horse,Dobbin,raced down the
tracks, each pulling a car full of passengers. Although the horse won when a belt on the
locomotive slipped off of a pulley, causing the engine to lose power, the performance of the
Tom Thumb convinced financial backers that steam locomotion was practical.
The construction and operation of the First Transcontinental Railroad was authorized by the
Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864 during the American Civil War and signed by
President Abraham Lincoln. Chinese and Irish immigrants, as well as Mormons from Utah,
worked for seven years to lay 1,777 miles of track that spanned from Omaha, Nebraska to
Oakland, California. From Nebraska, it connected to the existing railway network of the
eastern United States, making it possible for people to travel by rail from the coast to coast
for the first time. The line became known as the Overland Route and was in service for
almost seven decades until January 1963.
Railroads continued to monopolize transportation until the 1930s, when automobiles and
airplanes became the most popular modes of transportation.
Automobiles
No one person can take credit for the invention of the automobile. Its the work of many
inventors of many nationalities. The first automobiles were powered by steam.
In the 1800s, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, both Germans, independently contributed to
the invention of the gasoline-driven car. Both automobiles could run at speeds of 10 mph,
unheard of at the time. In America, the Duryea brothers, Charles and Frank, built the firstever working American gasoline-powered car and started the Duryea Motor Wagon
Company, which turned out fourteen cars a year. Not many people were interested in these
cars, though. It took Henry Fords assembly line idea to make the automobile affordable by
almost everyone. By 1925, more than nine thousand Ford Model Ts were rolling off the
assembly line every day. As a result of Fords success, Michigan became the hub of the
automobile transportation industry. Irish, Germans, Scots, Poles, Italians, Greeks, Serbians,
Turks, Armenians, Jews, Arabs and Lebanese flooded to the city in search of a better life.
African-Americans, Asians, Indians, and Pacific Islanders, as well as Canadians and
Mexicans all came to Detroit looking for work. As a result, Detroit is one of the most
ethnically diverse populations in the country.
Today, Google is testing a self-driving automobile. Where the automobile goes from here is
only up to mankinds imagination.
Planes

The second most popular transportation today is the airplane. One could say the first
airplane was a hot-air balloon invented by Jacques and Joseph Montgolfier of France. It rose
6,000 feet in the air in ten minutes and stayed afloat as it traveled more than a mile from
its point of departure. Three months later, they sent up three passengers: a duck, a rooster,
and a sheep.
In Germany, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin invented a metal-framed balloon powered by
steam, called a dirigible or airship. Dirigibles were so popular that they became known as
Zeppelins. However, when the Hindenburg caught fire, crashed, and exploded in 1937,
killing thirty-six people, passengers ceased to choose the dirigible as a form of
transportation.
Meanwhile, Orville and Wilbur Wright began experimenting with a new means of
transportationthe airplane. These two bicycle mechanics from Ohio started with box kites,
then gliders, and finally settled on building a biplane. On December 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk,
North Caroline, Orville Wright made the first airplane flight in history, traveling 120 feet
during his historical 12-second flight.
No one but barnstormers took airplanes seriously until the Douglas Aircraft Company built
the DC-3 in 1936. These planes had cruise speeds of 200 mph and became the most widely
used airliner in the world.
Then the race began for a bigger, faster airplane that could go further. Germany, Italy,
Great Britain, and the U.S. began experimenting with jet engines in 1939. Germany
produced the first jet fighter in 1944. After the war, Great Britain took the lead when the
Comet debuted in 1952.
Today, the largest jetliner is the Boeing 777, which can carry 481 passengers. As for speed,
the Concorde, designed jointly by Great Britain and France, entered service in 1976, is the
fastest passenger airplane, boasting speeds up to 1,500 mph and able to cross the Atlantic
in two hours. An unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft, the Boeing X-51 WaveRider,
used for hypersonic flight testing by the U.S. Air Force, successfully completed its first
powered flight on May 26, 2010, followed by another test in 2011 and one in 2012. Its
fourth flight test is scheduled for 2013. Designed to fly six times the speed of sound, it has
the potential of crossing the Atlantic in . . . one hour!
Who knows? With the hard work of todays creative thinkers, we may some day soar around
the entire world in an hour, read a newspaper while driving our cars, or travel thousands
of miles to enjoy a luxury vacation on Mars. Only time will tell!
Cindy Downes is an independent writer, a homeschool veteran, and author of The Checklist,
a scope and sequence for homeschoolers. She is also the creator of a variety of unit studies
and worksheets available for free on her websites. For more information, see her website at
http://www.cindydownes.com
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5. Astute Class Submarine: www.astuteclass.com/astute-class/the-astute-class

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Copyright 2013, used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally appeared in
the January 2013 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, the family education magazine.
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