Transportation of North America
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
Waterways
Industry has been strengthened by the ease of movement in North America. Waterways,
widely used by the Indians and early Europeans, are still important. In spite of the barriers of the
Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, the routes up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Hudson
Strait, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico permitted the swift development of coastal ports
and allowed the continental interior to be opened up. The Mississippi-Ohio and the Great Lakes–
St. Lawrence waterways drew navigation into the heartland. Connecting these two systems, the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, linking the Illinois River with Lake Michigan, and various
Ohio River–Lake Erie canals provided a tremendous network, extended by the Erie Canal to the
Mohawk-Hudson waterway and by the Intracoastal Waterway to river ports of the Gulf of
Mexico. The St. Lawrence Seaway, which overcame the Lachine and International rapids and
Niagara Falls, has made ocean ports of inland cities.
Railways
Railways soon offered the challenge of more direct and speedy access than the waterways.
Developed principally from bases along the Atlantic Seaboard, they made the most of gaps
through the Appalachians, debouched on the Great Lakes or Ohio River at Buffalo and Chicago
and Pittsburgh, and pushed on to the Mississippi River at St. Louis and St. Paul–Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Other lines were then laid across the Great Plains, and, utilizing passes through the
Cordilleras, the railways built terminals at San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Most of the
Western railways were given large land grants to encourage immigrants to settle along them,
while low promotional rates on long-haul traffic developed transcontinental trade. In Canada the
transcontinental railways linked up the Maritime Provinces with the St. Lawrence–Great Lakes,
and thence, from Montreal and Toronto, they crossed the shield to converge at Winnipeg; there,
reinforced by large land grants, they fanned out across the prairies, to be drawn together by the
Fraser River down to Vancouver.
Mexico overcame difficult grades in building a railway from Veracruz to Mexico City and
added extensions north and south along the Gulf Coast, with lines into Monterrey and to Mérida.
Eventually lines were pushed through the Sierra Madre Occidental at Guadalajara to the Pacific
coast.
Railroads had a tremendous impact on urban development. Among the major railroad cities
are New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles in the United States and Montreal,
Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada. Mexico City dominates the network in Mexico.
Railroads led to the rise of east-west over north-south lines and rapidly displaced most
waterways, particularly the Mississippi. The main economic axis in the United States lies along
the railway belt from New York to Chicago. Inadequate overall planning in major metropolitan
regions has resulted in crucial transportation problems, however, and inner-city rapid-transit
systems often have fared no better.
Roads
North America’s road network first began to offer serious competition to the railways after
World War I. The U.S. government has since financed more than 300,000 miles (483,000 km) of
transcontinental highways, including more than 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of limited-access
multilane roads. In Canada the Trans-Canada Highway offers a coast-to-coast through route,
while from Mexico the Pan-American Highway links the countries of Central America. These
highways have enabled trucks to take over short-haul routes from railways, and the railways
have concentrated on long-haul, low-cost routes. Truck and train, however, have been integrated
in the “piggyback” containerized carriage. The automobile, meanwhile, has displaced commuter
trains in many cities, and radial and ring routes have helped draw the cities far out into the
countryside. The attendant problems of congestion and pollution have approached the critical
stage in many cities.
Air transport
Air transport has taken most of the long-distance passenger traffic from the trains, and
airfreight has cut into truck-freighting trade. Intense overall competition is thus a recurrent
feature of North American transportation systems. Airways have tended to centre on the larger
cities and to magnify their importance, although the rise of the “hub” system of air transport has
helped to diversify air routes. Links with Europe and Asia make North America the chief
crossways of air routes in the world. The United States alone accounts for some two-fifths of all
the world’s passenger air traffic, and several of the chief airports in the world are in the United
States, including those in Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, San
Francisco, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Montreal and Mexico City are
also major air hubs.
