Chapter 4- Westward Growth of America
Unit 1
*Building roads, canals and rail roads:
Day after day passed more and more settlers stated to move toward the west. They had only one goal in order to reach to their destinations. The journey wasn’t easy. The way was full of different kinds of obstacles, which made their journey painful and much longer. It accounts all the problems that the frontiers were facing in their way toward west, the government started to think of a good transportation system. The government and some private companies were building new roads to connect states. They were building turnpikes (toll roads) thinking about further development of the roads because in order to travel through those roads travelers were required to pay toll, which can be used for future construction. In addition, some people used to think, that journey on water ways was more comfortable than journey on roads. So government started to build new canals. Usually canals are men made water bodies that connect two naturally occurred water bodies. For instance, Erie Canal of New York, it connects the Hudson River with Lake Erie. Besides roads and canals the U.S government also encouraged the development of rail road system.

Erie Canals 1825

*influence of transportation on the development of the U.S (1800-1861):
A good infrastructure can have a very important influence on the development of a nation. Same thing happened in the United States. First of all, building roads, canals and