Infrastructure challenges and solutions from 1860 onwards

¶ … America faced several difficult challenges in its quest to improve its infrastructure during the years leading up to 1860. First of all America was a very young country which consisted of 16 states with sparse populations spread out over large areas of land. The landscape in America during this time period made travel difficult and very expensive, the roads consisted mainly of post roads, which were little more that tracked dirt roads (Smithsonian.edu). The difficulty of travel resulted in the confinement of people to their local and surrounding areas making trading and communication difficult. Some of the first improvements to American infrastructure were the creation and improvement of roads. The challenge in creating roads lay in funding, roads were expensive and difficult projects to accomplish, the first federally funded road was approved by congress in 1806 and it stretched from Maryland to Illinois. Travel by waterways was also becoming a part of infrastructure for Americans in 1825 the completion of the Erie Canal helped linked important and strategic areas of the country together. This facilitated the exchange of trading goods between western regions, New York and other eastern regions by steamship.

Although the above mentioned improvements to infrastructure were very important, the largest and most significant improvement to America's infrastructure came from the improvement and expansion of the railroad. In 1840 there was approximately 3,000 miles of railroads in America by 1860 there were now over 30,000 miles of railroad tracks in service. This allowed for the infamous expansion of the western frontier, people were now able to leave the eastern part of the country with little thought or consideration and try their luck out west, where the agricultural and mining industries were booming. The railroad also allowed for the growth of America to continue as it connected goods, information, ideas and people from coast to coast. The biggest challenge that builders and proponents of railroads faced was the funding for the very large and expensive projects they undertook. Canals, turnpikes, roads and docks were all expensive and difficult to build during the 19th century but according to Barry Eichengreen "The railways were the most prominent and capital-intensive investments of the 19th century" (Eichengreen 4).