Transportation: Teaching History with a Theme
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Transportation: Teaching History with a Theme Cynthia W. Resor Teaching American History October 25, 2013 Monticello to Burnside KY Stagecoach, 1906 Transportation themes • Transportation affects everything but is rarely referenced • Local VS Federal VS Private – Who should pay for transportation infrastructure? • How transportation has CHANGED the landscape • The culture of major transportation routes – Stories and myths Sources for this presentation • Capturing the Horizon: The Historical Geography of Transportation since the Transportation Revolution of the 16th Century – By James E. Vance • Common Landscape of America, 1580-1845 – by John R. Stilgoe • Wicked River, The Mississippi When it Last Ran Wild – By Lee Sandlin (2010) • Internal Improvement, National Public Works and the Promise of Popular Government in the Early United States – John Lauritz Larson (2001) • Flush Times and Fever Dreams, A Story of Capitalism and Slavery in the Age of Jackson – By Joshua D. Rothman (2012) Transportation in Kentucky Monticello – Burnside Pike (HWY 90today) - 1913 From the Danville Advocate- Messenger • 1913 • The Kentucky Commissioner of Roads has designated Oct. 24 and 25 for local residents to work on their county's roads. The areas are to be divided into districts, with designated residents as superintendents. These superintendents are to see every person in their district and get them to work on bettering the roads. People in the city are urged to help with the work or contribute money, and automobile owners should haul workers and tools to the road sites Images in this presentation • Focus on pre-Civil War – Hard to find actual photographs • Sections divided by images from a 19th century Panorama – Giant oil painting – had special halls to display them – Some examples: • Burning of Moscow in 1812 • Blasting ships in harbor of Tripoli during the Barbary Wars • Eruption of Vesuvius • Biblical scenes to destruction of the world • Scenes in this presentation from own of the MOST popular topics • Mississippi River • In early 1850s – 5 different Mississippi panoramas on tour through America and Europe • Each was advertised as the biggest painting on earth • Shown in theaters, by gaslight, like movies • Two cylinders on opposite ends of stage with a narrator – telling stories, jokes + music • Viewing took 2 hours – a real show • Viewed as if you were going upriver or down river on a boat John J. Egan, American (born Ireland), 1810–1882; Scene from Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley, c.1850; tempera on lightweight fabric; 90 in. x 348 ft.; Saint Louis Art Museum Transportation Chronology List types of transportation in order of historical development Scene from 'Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley' (c. 1850), by John J. Egan. • Feet • Animals – riding or pulling loads • Water • Roads • Canals • Trains • Cars • Planes • Space Travel • For early humans, the land within the visual horizon was the realm of activity – Since the resources are limited in this space, human groups migrated with their flocks slowly over the landscape, slowly shifting the horizon • With the invention of agriculture, human groups occupied the same spot continuously. – BUT fixed abode meant fixed horizon, narrow experience, localized economy, provincial political viewpoint and very low demand for transportation Ancient Rome • Most travel restricted to military-political activity – Mostly walking that moved troops and emissaries around the empire (despite the engineering accomplishment of Romans) • Romans did some work in the facilities – paved narrow roads, bridges, short tunnels or great switchback paths over mountain passes BUT • Did little for the technology of movement • When Roman gov. declined and fell, routes fell into disrepair – New localized politics had new alignments, so often didn’t use roman roads Early Middle Ages (500-1000) • Central geographic characteristic was immobility – Commoners were legally tied to the land – Trade was restricted to local barter – Only luxuries were consumed in small quantities by the wealthy – Some travel for pilgrimage • Movement was so strange that it had a separate system of law – piepowder law in English – covered traveling merchants Harness & Wagons – Roman to Medieval • Middle Ages – did not improve facilities; – except rail-guided ways in German mines • but did improve technology of transport • Romans used horses for chariots and oxen for wagons, but had no harness that employed the full effort – Oxen were harnessed by their horns and horses by straps that tended to choke them if they pulled hard • 12th century – the breast and girth bands attached to a yoke and pole supplanted by the padded collar and shafts or traces that have ever since been used to get the maximum effort • The Roman wagons had fixed axles – required a really good road – The Celts in the 1st century BC –had wagons with pivoted fore-axles which were more efficient – rolled over the surface rather than plowing a shallow furrow like rigid-frame/fixed axle vehicles • By late Middle Ages, swiveling fore-axles came into wider use • + 4 wheeled wagons • + Harness – 2 wheeled carts were common way to move freight prior to improvements in late Middle Ages – see Brueghel’s paintings 1564 – could be more easily turned than a 4 when fixed axle – The Census at Bethlehem by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1566) Bridges- transportation innovation • Transportation stress points in the Middle Ages were at river crossings • Ferries and fords across rivers had to serve when no Roman bridge – but high water, robbers, high tolls were a problem • Medieval monks built bridges with engineering knowledge also used for the Gothic Cathedral – Gothic arch and vault – That knowledge used in the abutments and stream piers of bridges – the arched vaults of medieval bridges were lighter, broader and more daring than the Romans – Bridges could cross wider streams without being really steep – Included “cutwaters” on the piers, gothic arches instead of semicircular like the Romans – Less bridge support in the water – especially helpful in turbulent water Cutwater • St. Bénézet and the bridge he built at Avignon • spanned the Rhône River between Avignon and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (southern France) • built between 1177 and 1185, with an original length of 980 yd • The bridge's construction was inspired by Saint Bénézet, a local shepherd boy who was commanded by angels to build a bridge across the river • Laughed at until he "proved" his divine inspiration by miraculously lifting a huge block of stone. • Buried in bridge itself Roads in Europe • Princes and kings intent on consolidating their rule and unifying their realms improved roads – tried to make “wilderness” safe for travel • Pacification through road building proceeded unevenly through history – but by the end of the 1500s (late Middle Ages), people were moving beyond the old ideas of local travel only, of paths between fields, garden plots and dwellings. • The concern for good roads and overseas exploration, developed slowly as political unity and long-distance overland commerce. “the king’s highway” • “the king’s highway” became a new sort of space • Corvée - unpaid labor imposed by the state on certain classes of people, such as peasants, for the performance of work on public projects – In Europe, the local people were commanded to maintain it so that armies, couriers, and traders were not delayed • Strangers entered towns – peddlers, entertainers, government representatives (armies, tax collectors, governors), crooks, traveling scholars, pilgrims, beggars, refugees, traveling workers & apprentices • Highways changed personal relationships (similar to urban life today) – you might meet someone only once – Strangers met knowing they might may never meet again • Wealth grew along roads – Rural agriculture changes (from subsistence & local supply) to market oriented agriculture because could not get products to cities Transportation Revolution - 1500-1800 • Improvements in facilities AND technology of transport – Canal technology • Earliest canal locks developed • Transformation of existing waterways with canals • How to drain the excessive water in some places and relieve seasonal drought in others – for transport – Bridges built at critical stress points – Better wagons – Legal impediments to travel were being relaxed – Banking to permit trade was growing – Sailing technology improved • By end of 1600s, European nations discovered that good roads, safe harbors, and other communication facilities benefited political unity and military security Earliest European Canals • Dutch , Holland, Low Countries – where lock and canal technology perfected • Naviglio Grande – northern Italy, built in 1100-1200’s, 31 miles long – Probably originating as a ditch dug in 1157 as a defense against Frederick Barbarossa – one of the largest post-medieval engineering projects, allowing development of commerce, transport and agriculture. • The Elbe–Lübeck Canal – Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; built in late 1300s; 42 miles long – Connects the Elbe and Trave rivers, creating access from the Elbe to the Baltic Sea • Royal Canal in Languedoc – France, built in 1600s; 150 miles long • Bridgewater Canal – North West England; opened in 1761 – Used to transport coal – started "canal mania“ in England Transportation in America Saint Louis Art Museum, Eliza McMillan Trust 'The Tornado of 1844; Destruction of Indian Settlements; Horrid Loss of Life'—Scene 11 from 'Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of