504 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 9 



This celebrated partner of the Lewis and Clark expedition into the 

 Pacific Northwest was on his way to the National Capital at Wash- 

 ington to make a report to President Thomas Jefferson. 



The subsequent improvement of the Natchez Trace was hastened 

 to some extent by the Napoleonic Wars which raged in Europe and 

 which were responsible indirectly for our War of 1812 with England. 

 Gen. Andrew Jackson moved American troops southwest over the 

 Natchez Trace for the defense of New Orleans. The decisive opera- 

 tions of the struggle, however, consisted of naval engagements, and 

 the British blockade bottled our coastwise sailing packets in the 

 American harbors. These operations were so successful along the 

 Atlantic seaboard that the freight business between New England 

 and the southern States had to be transferred to Conestoga wagons. 

 This abrupt increase in coastwise land travel soon overtaxed our in- 

 fant highway system. An example of this was to be seen at Trenton, 

 N. J. (pi. 5, fig, 2), where the heavy freight wagons, carts, and stage- 

 coaches rumbled beneath the elaborate facade of the Delaware River 

 bridge. 



With the signing of the treaty at Ghent, in December 1814, which 

 concluded the War of 1812, there began a century that was to be 

 characterized by revolutionary improvements in transportation and 

 communication. This was a logical corollary to the growth of the 

 new factory system. An expanding market for the industrial civili- 

 zation in the East was provided by the emigrants to the new lands 

 in the West which were being opened for settlement and trade. The 

 first of the great overland roads to the Far West was the Santa Fe 

 Trail which connected the western frontier of the United States at 

 Independence, Mo., with Mexico. At the starting point on the 

 American frontier the traders unloaded their covered wagons and 

 supplies from steamboats plying on the waters of the Missouri River 

 (pi. 6, fig. 1). The steel tires were tightened on the wagons to pre- 

 vent their shackling, or loosening and rattling, when the wooden 

 wheels shrank on the long journey across the deserts parched dry by 

 the burning sun. 



Soon the struggle to improve the methods of transportation became 

 more intense, and well-built canals challenged the supremacy of the 

 horseways in the East. To tap the vast region surrounding the 

 Great Lakes the Erie Canal was opened to travel in 1825 (pi. 6, fig. 

 2). This new waterway provided almost a level connection across 

 the barrier of the Appalachian Mountains. New York City, at the 

 mouth of the Hudson River, became the nearest Atlantic seaport for 

 the new States carved from the Northwest Territory. Philadelphia 

 had been displaced previously as the leading metropolis of the 

 country. 



