Improved Technologies in Transportation
In every sector of life, change continued to be the “password.” In fact, it occurred
with such speed that people did not realize they were in a technological revolution.
Keep inmind that the telegraph, the railroad, the telephone, and electricity already
created well-established revolutions, but many new ideas and inventions were about
to flourish, especially in transportation!
A simple definition of
transportation
is ameans of moving people, goods, and
services fromone place to another. When walking was the chief means of
transportation, people tended to gather and live within little towns and neighborhoods.
They would try to keep a supply of their needs within a short distance. Asmethods of
transportation becamemore efficient—the canal, steamboat, steam locomotive, gas
engine for cars and buses, jet engines for air transport and so on—our society became
moremobile. People, goods and services becamemore spread out but they were just
as accessible.
To demonstrate this point, as a child in the 1950s, your author can remember that
a bank, grocery store, hardware store, clothing store, movie theater, church, and
school all were within walking distances fromhis home, as well as themedical doctor,
dentist, and furniture store. Now, in the 2000s, all of these named places can be
housed under one roof or location that serves a larger geographic region.
Shopping
malls
with large parking lots have becomemuchmore convenient for consumers.
Transportation systems continued to emerge, develop, and improve throughout
the 20th and 21st centuries, allowing us to become geographically moremobile and
spread out. Because of this, transportation has become big business within our
state. Let’s take a look at themajor modes of transportation and how they affected
development during the 1900s and into the 2000s.
M
ODERN
P
ENNSYLVANIA
F
OCUS
Q
UESTIONS
1. How have the ways we personally travel and shop changed through
the 20th century?
2. How do our transportation systems continue to be important to our
lifestyles?
3. What new transportation systems emerged in the 20th century?
4. What have beenmajor changes in the communications industry through
the 21st century?
LESSON
22
KEY
WORDS
transportation
shopping malls
domestic
international
gasoline engine
mass producing
interstate highway
truck terminals
street cars
cable cars
trolley cars
suburbs
imports
exports
refined
telecommunications
information
superhighway
KEY
PLACES
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Reading
Allentown
Erie
Monongahela River
Allegheny River
Ohio River
Great Lakes
St. Lawrence Seaway
KEY
PEOPLE
Frank &Charles
Duryea
Mack brothers
98
Understanding Pennsylvania
