Speed of Transportation
Speed since the 1800's had increased a tremendous amount. The time of travel had increased by 90%. Before the railroads, one day of travel from New York City by horse and buggy would take you to Philadelphia, four days travel would take you to Boston, and a weeks worth of travel would take you to Pittsburgh. These times were also all planning on having good conditions and no mishaps such as abuses or bad weather. By 1860 with the travel of railroads one days travel from New York City took you to Cleveland, three days travel you could reach Florida or central Iowa, and a week's journey took you to Texas. These times were also much more accurate because trains were better sheltered and equipped for the natural elements and ambushes. Speed of travel during the 1800's positively changed so much with the new technology and helped the people of the United Sates in an enormous amount. With this increasing speed trade was so much easier and faster. Even with these dramatic time differences during the emergence of railroads many people such as Horace Greely and Fredrick L. Olmsted complained about bad connections and late trains. With the bad connections or late trains there was no way for anyone to complain considering the speed change that railroads created. The speed of trains was six times as fast as the previous highest speed methods of transportation. These steam engines could also travel through terrain that horse and buggy or canal boats could not travel through. They could go through such areas as the Sierra Nevada Mountains with half the troubles of other types of transportation. Going through the tough terrain enabled trains to travel a shorter distance which also saved time. Traveling in the shortest distance possible also helped positively increase the speed of trade. After the building of railroads the speed of travel had increased such an incredible amount that even with flaws such as late trains or bad connection times there could be no comparison between the speed of travel before and after the building of railroads.