In 1662 …show more content…
although “The first railroad track in the United States was only 13 miles long, it caused a lot of excitement when it opened in 1830.”(2). By the time the 1920’s rolled around, there was “253,000 miles of track operated by more than one-and-a-half million railroad men and women employed by at least 1,000 railroad companies.”(9). “In 1928, the last steam-powered engine was acquired, but the existing steam engines continued to run into the 1950s. During the 1920s, a number of gas-electric cars were designed, but the new engines did not have the staying power of the steam engines”(10) they continued using the steam engine for two more decades, until the making of the diesel engine.from 1916 to the end of the 20’s trains “were the dominant mass transportation methods, providing comfortable, reliable transport to millions of American vacationers. Trains had opened up the continent.”(5). Though the “Golden Age” of trains did end “roughly after the 20s when other modes of travel began to slowly entrench on the iron …show more content…
Which was a “stationary gasoline engine developed by Carl Benz, a one-cylinder two-stroke unit which ran for the first time on New Year’s Eve 1879.”(8). In 1913 “A man by the name of Henry Ford developed the assembly line. Improving productivity in the workplace and ensuring that more goods would be produced.”(14) by 1921 the American people owned 8 Million vehicles. With at least 30 different models to choose from, the Model T was the most popular. As people are they wanted the newer better vehicle on the market so, “By 1927 replacement demand for new cars was exceeding demand from first-time owners and multiple-car purchasers combined. Given the incomes of the day, automakers could no longer count on an expanding market. Installment sales had been initiated by the makers of moderately priced cars in 1916 to compete with the Model T, and by 1925 about three-quarters of all new cars were bought “on time” through credit.” Before 1921 the roads between towns and cities were dirt, so when any weather hit the roads would be awful. In 1921 “The legislature passed the historic Highway Act, which included a one-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline to help finance hard-surface, all-weather highways. By 1929 the legislature had raised the gas tax to five cents per gallon. These funds allowed the state to pave more than three thousand miles of hard-surface (concrete or asphalt) highways connecting the county seats and state