Transportation

125 Pages·2012·4.88 MB·English

Transportation:
Past, Present and Future
“From the Curators”
Transportatthieohennry fiornd.o rAg/emduceatiornica
Table of Contents
PART 1 PART 2

03 Chapter 1 85 Chapter 1
What Is “American” about American Transportation? 20th-Century Migration and Immigration
06 Chapter 2 92 Chapter 2
Government‘s Role in the Development of Immigration Stories
American Transportation
99 Chapter 3
10 Chapter 3 The Great Migration
Personal, Public and Commercial Transportation
107 Bibliography
17 Chapter 4

Modes of Transportation
PART 3
17 Horse-Drawn Vehicles
30 Railroad
36 Aviation 101 C hapter 1
40 Automobiles Pleasure Travel
40 From the User’s Point of View 124 B ibliography
50 The American Automobile Industry,
1805-2010

60 Auto Issues Today
Globalization, Powering Cars of the Future,

Vehicles and the Environment, and Modern

Manufacturing
© 2011 The Henry Ford. This content is offered for personal and educa-
74 Chapter 5
tional use through an “Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike” Creative
Transportation Networks Commons. If you have questions or feedback regarding these materials,
please contact [email protected].
81 Bibliography
2 Transportation: Past, Present and Future | “From the Curators” thehenryford.org/education
PART 1
Chapter 1
What Is “American” About American Transportation?
A society’s transportation system reflects the society’s values, Large cities like Cincinnati and smaller ones like Flint,
attitudes, aspirations, resources and physical environment. Michigan, and Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, turned them out
Some of the best examples of uniquely American transporta- by the thousands, often utilizing special-purpose woodwork-
tion stories involve: ing machines from the burgeoning American machinery
industry. By 1900, buggy makers were turning out over
• The American attitude toward individual freedom
500,000 each year, and Sears, Roebuck was selling them for
• The American “culture of haste”
under $25. “In a sense, then, the cheap, factory-made buggy
• The American attitude toward democracy
became to 19th-century Americans what the Model T Ford
• The American attitude toward risk
would become to their children and grandchildren” (Kinney,
• The American attitude toward natural resources
2004, 22-23).
• Characteristically American vehicles
When the bicycle arrived in the late 1880s, Americans
Transportation and Individual Freedom embraced it for similar reasons, as a vehicle that offered
great personal mobility at low cost. As soon as the auto-
One of the driving forces in American history is the concept
mobile became cheap enough for large numbers to afford,
of personal or individual freedom. It is no accident that the
Americans adopted it with a vengeance.
best-remembered line in the Declaration of Independence
is the one about God-given rights to “life, liberty and the While it is true that Americans also quickly took to travel
pursuit of happiness.” One manifestation of these rights is in railroad trains in the 19th century, one observer reacted
unfettered freedom to travel, to move wherever the urge and to the rise of trains by articulating where Americans’ hearts
economic opportunity lead. This, in turn, has produced an really lay: “After all, its old fashioned way of five or six miles
American fascination with personal vehicles. an hour, with one’s own horse and carriage, with liberty to
dine decently in a decent inn, with the delight of seeing the
Prior to the 19th century, personal vehicles usually meant
country and getting along rationally, is the mode to which I
horse-drawn carriages, but during the 19th century, cheaper,
cling, and which will be adopted again by the generations of
lighter vehicles were developed. Designed to be pulled
after times” (Rae, 1971, 22).
by a single horse, they were less expensive to maintain
than a coach. Though based on European designs, the
light two-wheeled chaise evolved into the American shay.
New England builders developed the four-wheeled pleasure
wagon before 1825. It could carry light freight and be
used for passengers. The pleasure wagon presaged the
appearance of one of the characteristic American horse-
drawn vehicles, the buggy. The one-horse buggy — light,
strong and designed to bounce over bad rural American
roads — was also cheap.
3 Transportation: Past, Present and Future | “From the Curators” thehenryford.org/education
Transportation and the American “Culture of Haste” Transportation and Democracy
When Europeans arrived on the American continent, they We have been conditioned to think of democracy as a politi-
saw it as a vast, empty space that needed filling with people, cal concept, but in America it has played itself out in other
buildings and farms. Early on, colonists developed a sense ways. Daniel Boorstin has commented that the widespread
of urgency to clear land, plant crops and build a society. production and consumption of goods is an expression of
Impatience became an American characteristic. Historian American democracy. The sheer volume of stuff turned out
Daniel Boorstin called it a “culture of haste.” One reason by American factories had a leveling effect. Not for nothing
that railroads were embraced so readily was their poten- did American carriage makers claim that they were making
tial for conquering distance and time. The lure of fantastic “Rich Men’s Vehicles at Poor Men’s Prices.” The railroad
30-miles-per-hour speeds proved irresistible. made travel available to a wider group of people, but it was
the automobile that really democratized travel. The auto
But haste has other manifestations. It led to hurried building
truly moved from being a rich man’s toy to being everyman’s
of roads and vehicles with an emphasis on quantity
conveyance. Throughout automotive history, the character-
over quality. As one English observer put it, “Let it go at
istics of expensive cars have steadily migrated down to the
that seems written all over the face of the land. You see it
common vehicles – from big engines (Ford’s V-8) through
in the wretchedly laid railway and tramway tracks, in
amenities like radios and power windows, to advanced tech-
swaying telegraph poles and sagging wires . . . in streets
nical features like antilock brakes and stability control.
unscavenged, in rubbishy cutlery . . . in scamped and
hurried work everywhere. There seems to be a disdain of
Transportation and Risk
thorough workmanship and finish in detail” (Ferguson, 1979,
13). The rapidly built carriages, bicycles and, later, auto- From its very beginnings, America has attracted risktakers.
mobiles are manifestations of this impulse. The quality of The risk-averse did not make hazardous ocean voyages in
mass-produced Model Ts may not have lived up to that of small ships or, in later years, did not leave familiar surround-
low-production European vehicles, but Americans wanted ings to go to a new country where they did not even speak
their cars cheap and wanted them now. Ironically, the linger- the language. Risktakers built or invested in steamboats,
ing effects of this attitude may today be hampering the very canals, railroads, streetcar systems, cable car systems, stage
automakers that had once profited from it. lines and automobile companies. One historian credits the
rise of Detroit as an automobile center to the presence of a
number of entrepreneurs who would rather go broke build-
ing automobiles than get rich doing something else. For
users of transportation, risk is often balanced with speed and
convenience. In the 19th century, steamboats exploded with
distressing regularity and railroad accidents were common,
yet getting there quickly and cheaply was deemed worth
the risk. Since automobiles became widespread, 40,000 to
50,000 Americans have died annually in auto accidents, a
fact that seems not to lessen our enthusiasm for the vehicles.
4 Transportation: Past, Present and Future | “From the Curators” thehenryford.org/education
Transportation and the American Attitude Toward When the automobile arrived in the early 20th century, it
Natural Resources was, fortuitously, followed by the great oil strike at Spindle-
top in Texas. Images of gushing wells, combined with low
The first Europeans to arrive in America were astonished by
oil prices, set Americans on a course they are still following.
its natural abundance. Land, water, fish, game and eventually
Cheap gasoline is now regarded as a basic right, an essential
minerals like coal and iron ore were available in “inexhaust-
component of the “pursuit of happiness.”
ible” supplies. And they were used as if they really were
inexhaustible. Game was slaughtered for food, hides, fur and Characteristic American Vehicles
sheer sport. Land was farmed, depleted and abandoned for
We have mentioned vehicles such as the pleasure wagon,
new fields. Nowhere was this pattern more typical than in
the shay and the buggy, but American conditions gave rise
the use of wood.
to other vehicles as well.
For farmers, wood was a nuisance, and clearing the land
The Concord coach, built primarily by Abbot-Downing
of trees was one of their main tasks. Trees fed the Ameri-
in Concord, New Hampshire, but also in places like Troy
can (and the British) shipbuilding industry. The shortage
and Albany, both in New York, was designed for rough
of labor and abundance of trees led to the development of
American roads. Though associated in the popular mind
water-powered sawmills while the British still relied on hand
with the American West, this stagecoach was originally used
sawyers. The explosive growth of American railroads was
in the East, until railroads made it obsolete. Its ruggedness
literally built on and fueled by wood. Wood ties underlaid
resulted in its successful export to places like Australia and
the rails (in contrast with the stone blocks favored by Euro-
South Africa.
pean railways); bridges and trestles were built of wood (again,
in contrast with the masonry structures favored across the The American buckboard wagon was among the simplest of
pond); railroad cars were built of wood; and the locomotives vehicles. Light and cheap, buckboards utilized horizontal slats
burned wood long after European railroads switched to coal. as a combination frame and spring.
Wood was also essential to the development of highway With the birth of the Model T Ford, the family car be-
transportation. Light, strong woods like hickory allowed came characteristically American. Like the Concord coach,
American carriages to develop the light, spidery construc- it was rugged and simple. Like the buggy, it was light and
tion that surprised European observers. As on the railroads, cheap. European autos generally did not incorporate all these
wood was used for bridges, from the classic covered bridge characteristics. Over the years, American family cars became
to spectacular achievements like the 330-foot Colossus bigger, more powerful and more luxurious, and were fueled
bridge spanning the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia. by cheap gasoline. American design drew further and further
Wood was also used as a paving material. Logs laid side away from European design. In the 1980s, the family car’s
by side created “corduroy roads.” Various types of wood place began to be supplanted by the sport utility vehicle – a
blocks were used to pave city streets (including Detroit’s), sedan on steroids – and by another American design, the
and for a few years in the mid-19th century, plank roads pickup truck.
were a mania. Lacking good preservation techniques, wood
pavement deteriorated rapidly, but the fact it was used at
all is testimony to the American conviction that wood was
cheap and inexhaustible.
5 Transportation: Past, Present and Future | “From the Curators” thehenryford.org/education
Chapter 2
Government’s Role in the Development of American Transportation
Despite our great national myth of individualism, The last federal appropriation came in 1838, to complete
government at all levels has been a key player in shaping construction into Illinois.
American transportation. There are three major ways in
Nineteenth-century city governments often did little bet-
which government has played a role:
ter than their rural counterparts. Cities paid for streets via
• Directly owning and operating transportation special assessments on the owners of property fronting on
routes and vehicles the streets. The abutters, as they were legally known, often
had little interest in good paving that would only encour-
• Granting franchises and monopolies to private
age wheeled traffic and make their streets noisier and more
builders and operators
dangerous. They often opted for the cheapest pavement they
• Regulating rates, safety, vehicle specifications, etc. could get away with.
Serious nationwide government efforts to build and main-
Direct Government Ownership
tain roads and streets really did not come about until the ear-
The most familiar government-owned transportation ly 20th century, with the explosion in popularity of automo-
facilities are roads and streets. They are the property of biles. One key to new government activism was the gasoline
villages, towns, cities, townships, counties, states and the tax. Oregon instituted the first gasoline tax in 1919. Within
federal government. Yet, throughout the 19th century, ten years, all states and the District of Columbia had added
government at all levels avoided spending large sums of such a tax. The new tax transformed the financing of roads.
money on roads. Construction often involved little more In 1921, property taxes and general funds provided three-
than cutting trees and clearing a path. Rural roads were quarters of the money for road construction and mainte-
typically maintained by calling on local residents to donate nance. By 1929, gasoline taxes were covering the lion’s share
a few days each year to roadwork. Farmers, with plenty of of road costs, and 21 states had ceased to use property taxes
other things to do, generally did not approach the task of or general funds for main roads. The gasoline tax was not
roadwork with seriousness or enthusiasm, and the quality only effective, it was actually popular. As the man in charge
of the roads suffered accordingly. of collecting Tennessee’s gas tax put it, “Never before in the
history of taxation has a major tax been so generally accept-
There was comparatively little road-building done by the
ed in so short a period.” It was remarkable, he thought, to
federal government, largely because of the continuing, un-
what extent Americans “were willing to pay for the almost
resolved debate over the constitutionality of federal funding
infinite expansion of their automobility” (Flink, 1988, 171).
for such internal improvements. The great exception was the
This American willingness to subsidize automobile transpor-
Cumberland Road, also known as the National Road. When
tation would have profound consequences for all forms of
Ohio was admitted to the Union in 1802, a portion of the
rail-borne transportation.
revenue from the sales of public land in the new state was
set aside for roads connecting the Ohio and Potomac rivers. The federal government did not impose a gas tax until 1932,
Not until 1811 was this money used for what became the but it began funding highways much earlier. The Federal Aid
National Road. Over the next two and one-half decades, the Road Act of 1916 appropriated $75 million for rural post
road would be pushed on through Ohio and Indiana.
6 Transportation: Past, Present and Future | “From the Curators” thehenryford.org/education
roads. The fact that the money was administered by state cities had deteriorated, motormen and conductors were
highway departments forced states to create such depart- often surly, cars were in bad condition, and companies
ments. The 1921 Federal Highway Act focused the national wanted to raise fares. Reformers began to agitate for
government’s efforts on interstate roads that formed a na- municipal ownership of the streetcar systems.
tional network.
The political battles were long and fierce. Ironically, one
One of the greatest influences on government highway of the leaders in the movement was Detroit Mayor James
policy from the 1920s through the early 1950s was a man Couzens, who had become a millionaire as Henry Ford’s
most Americans have never heard of—Thomas H. Mac- right-hand man. Couzens finally achieved his goal of munic-
Donald, head of the federal government’s Bureau of Public ipal ownership of the streetcar system in 1922. City-owned
Roads (BPR). He worked tirelessly and effectively to build systems would eventually become the norm, but it would
support for highways in Congress, forged partnerships with not save the trolley from extinction. Today some cities are
state highway departments and spread the gospel of high- reviving the streetcar idea under the name “light rail.” Such
ways. The BPR also studied construction methods, analyzed systems are government-funded, for private rail passenger
failures and worked to improve the way roads were built. service simply cannot pay for itself any longer.
MacDonald promoted the idea that the use of public roads
The federal government’s willingness to subsidize highways
was a human right, while the use of private railroads was a
would eventually contribute to its entry into the railroad
privilege based on a fare. Thus he validated the public’s will-
business. In the years after World War II, rail passenger traf-
ingness to subsidize roads in preference to rails.
fic declined as people took to the highways. The advent of
Surely the greatest government highway project in this or smooth, straight interstate highways accelerated this trend. It
any other country is the 41,000-mile Interstate Highway also accelerated a shift of freight traffic from rail to truck. To
System, authorized in 1956. Expanding on the gas- tax keep passenger service alive, Congress in 1971 created the
idea, the system was funded by a dedicated trust fund from National Rail Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), which ab-
taxes on fuel, tires, new buses, trucks and trailers, as well sorbed the shards of nearly all remaining long-haul passenger
as operating trucks. Americans had come a very long way trains. Officially a private corporation, Amtrak nevertheless
from the days when they asked if federal funding of roads depends on federal appropriations to make up its operating
was constitutional. losses. The Amtrak tiger may be weak and nearly toothless,
but the government does not seem to be able to dismount.
If it took Americans a long while to convince themselves
Amtrak continues to lose money but retains enough political
that tax-funded roads were a good idea, it took even longer
clout to prevent its demise.
for them to accept the notion of government–owned and
-operated rail systems. Horsecars, electric street cars, and The federal experience with rail freight service was happier.
interurban and long-haul railroads were all privately owned. Like Amtrak, the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail)
Despite populist agitation for a federal takeover of rail- was formed to operate failing rail lines but concentrated on
roads, such an expansion of government power was not in freight service. Unlike Amtrak, Conrail eventually became
the cards. But in the early 20th century, attitudes began to a profitable system, so profitable that it was finally sold to
change in cities. Trolleys, once so new and so popular, had other, fully private, railroads.
become the object of many complaints. Service in many
7 Transportation: Past, Present and Future | “From the Curators” thehenryford.org/education
Granting Franchises and Monopolies Cities granted franchises to builders of street railways. Horse-
car lines, cable car lines and electric car lines were all en-
If 19th-century Americans were uncomfortable with direct
couraged in this way. As with the turnpikes, the privilege of
government funding of roads and rails, they were quite
operating a line over an exclusive route came at the price of
comfortable with something that 21st-century Americans
regulation. Streetcar companies were told where they could
would find highly irregular: granting private companies
or could not operate, when they could operate, how many
franchises and monopolies to build roads or bridges.
cars they must provide and how much they could charge.
The first private turnpike corporation in the United States The last requirement was the most serious sticking point.
was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in The nickel fare became sacrosanct, and hardly any politician
1792. The resulting Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike was willing to risk supporting a fare increase. In the end,
opened two years later. It was a first-class road, with a stone many politicians came to support a complete takeover of
surface. It set the pattern for future turnpikes. A private streetcar systems, with taxes subsidizing the nickel fare.
corporation was granted the right to build the road, and
the corporation sold stock to finance the construction. The Watchful Eye of the Regulator
Then the corporation charged tolls to use the finished road.
Americans generally dislike government regulation – except
The tolls were supposed to cover maintenance of the
when they like it. After the turnpike and trolley companies
highway and produce a surplus that would pay dividends
discussed above, the next great transportation industry to be
to the stockholders.
subject to a growing net of laws and rules was railroading.
The potential for profit seemed so great that states were
In the years after the Civil War, the railroads were the great
soon chartering turnpikes by the score. Pennsylvania
driving force of the American economy. Large numbers of
chartered over 80, while New York had 278 companies.
people worked for the railroads, many more rode the trains
In a few states, like Indiana and South Carolina, turnpikes
and even more regularly depended on railroads to bring
were actually owned and financed by the states. Far more
them some item they used or something they ate. But many
often, however, the state was simply one of the stockholders.
railroad users were not happy. Farmers and other shippers
The turnpikes were closely regulated, with tolls fixed
complained of monopoly pricing. When the railroad came to
by contract and standards of construction specified.
a town, the town would grow. But if the railroad rerouted its
Unfortunately, this business model turned out to be flawed.
traffic and bypassed a town, the town could die. Organiza-
Revenues rarely met expectations, and maintenance costs
tions like the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry
generally exceeded estimates. Few companies actually made
and the Populist Party agitated for the regulation of the
any money. Gradually, most turnpikes were abandoned,
railroads. The initial attempt at regulation, the 1887 Interstate
and the companies were liquidated.
Commerce Act, created an Interstate Commerce Commis-
The 1840s and 1850s saw a revival of turnpikes in the sion (ICC) that had little real effect on the industry. Yet over
form of plank roads. As the name implies, these were roads the next decades, the regulatory net would gradually tighten
surfaced with sawn boards. They were cheap to build and until rates, routes and employee hours were all subject to
smooth when new. But the elements of weather quickly rot- federal law. The regulations curbed the worst railroad abuses
ted the wood, and plank roads were no more successful than but left the carriers poorly equipped to deal with the chang-
their older stone-paved cousins. ing realities of 20th-century transportation. Ultimately, Con-
gress was forced to loosen regulations in the 1980s to allow
the remaining railroads to survive.
8 Transportation: Past, Present and Future | “From the Curators” thehenryford.org/education
By comparison, the automobile and the motor truck were tions. A growing concern with air pollution prompted
relatively unregulated. States gradually realized that operating the Clean Air Act of 1970, placing increasingly stringent
a motor vehicle required some minimum qualifications and limits on tailpipe emissions. In the early 1970s, gasoline
adopted licensing procedures, but they were hardly restric- shortages induced by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum
tive. Laws and speed limits were written to promote the Exporting Countries) raised concerns about gasoline
smooth and safe flow of traffic, but placing restrictions on mileage in vehicles, giving rise to fuel economy laws. In a
motor vehicles was not what most Americans wanted. relatively short span, one of the least regulated modes of
transportation had become one of the most regulated.
Changes would come, however, in the 1960s. The publica-
tion of Ralph Nader’s indictment of auto safety, “Unsafe
at Any Speed,” coupled with General Motors’ ham-fisted
attempts to discredit him, helped spur federal safety regula-
9 Transportation: Past, Present and Future | “From the Curators” thehenryford.org/education
Chapter 3
Personal, Public and Commercial Transportation
A Preference for the Personal buggies and road wagons (the buggy’s sleeker, more stylish
cousin) were sold, some 72 percent of total carriage produc-
In 1910, the United States had one of the world’s great
tion. Most carriages were sold to farmers, who could now
public transportation systems: 353,000 miles of railroad track
afford a dedicated people-carrier.
knitted states and cities together, carrying over 970 million
passengers. Within cities, a network of electric street-railways
Bicycles
provided popular, efficient transportation. Yet, within 40
years, long-distance railroad passenger service was dying and In the late 1870s, an English import heralded the next
streetcars were disappearing. Private automobiles became the revolution in private transportation. Bicycles offered great
method of choice for moving people on land. Historians and personal mobility – first, the awkward “high-wheelers” and
policy makers have debated the reasons for this change over then, in 1887, the chain-driven “safety” bicycle. The public
the last several decades. It becomes clear, however, that the responded by buying bicycles in droves. The bicycle also
American public was extraordinarily receptive to the notion brought the personal transportation revolution to the cities.
of and was well prepared for the concept when the automo- Private ownership of horses in a city was expensive and in-
bile arrived at the end of the 19th century. convenient, so few city dwellers owned buggies. But bicycles
needed neither stables nor feed and left behind no unpleas-
Horse-Drawn Vehicles ant residue. Like the buggy industry, the bicycle industry
responded to demand by vastly improving production tech-
For much of American history, ownership of vehicles for pri-
niques and driving down prices. But the bicycle did some-
vate transportation was restricted to the rich. While farmers
thing else. As inventor Hiram Percy Maxim, looking back
might use their wagons for both work and personal trans-
in 1937 put it, the bicycle “created a new demand which it
portation, they could rarely afford a vehicle dedicated only
was beyond the ability of the railroad to supply. Then it came
to hauling people. A large variety of four-wheeled carriages,
about that the bicycle could not satisfy the demand which
both open and closed, were developed to meet the market,
it had created. A mechanically propelled vehicle was wanted
but they still sold to a select clientele.
instead of a foot propelled one, and we now know that the
The whole city of Boston had only 145 wheeled vehicles automobile was the answer” (Hounshell, 1984, 214).
in 1798. Philadelphia, then the principal city of the United
States, had only 827 wheeled vehicles in 1794. In both cases,
the majority of these vehicles were carts and wagons for
hauling commercial goods or light two-wheeled vehicles,
such as sulkies and shays. The real breakthrough for personal
transportation was the buggy. Appearing in the 1830s, bug-
gies underwent the classic cycle of increasing demand and
decreasing prices. In the 1860s, a good-quality buggy would
cost a tradesman $125 to $150, several months’ wages. By
1900, the application of factory methods had dropped the
price to about one month’s wages. In that year, over 660,000
10 Transportation: Past, Present and Future | “From the Curators” thehenryford.org/education