The Transportation Revolution

1. A New Principle of Organization--Economic Institutions
2. The "Internal Improvement" Impulse
   1. Personal Ambition--The Commercial Republic
   2. The Problem of the West
      1. Isolation from the Northeast--the Alleghenies
      2. The River System--Misdirection
3. Solutions
   1. Roads
      1. Private--Turnpikes
      2. Public--The National Road
   2. Canals
      1. Early Canals
      2. The Revolutionary Erie Canal
      3. Post-Erie--The Canal Boom--Role of City Rivalries
   3. Railroads
      1. Advantages
         1. Constancy
         2. Reliability
         3. Flexibility
         4. Profitability
      2. Timing
         1. The First Railroads--City Rivalries Again
         2. The Boom of the 1850s
      3. Nature of Enterprises
         1. Mixed Public-Private Partnerships
         2. Federal Aid
         3. Large-Scale Capital
            1. The Rise of Wall Street
            2. The First "Big Businesses"
4. Impact--Toward Urban-Industrial America