Speed of Travel 1800

In the 1800s travel across the United States could take weeks. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, implemented a programme of transportation links to facilitate both trade and the movement of people. He constructed waterways and dirt roads, while encouraging the use of steamboats, boats, barges and canoes on the nation’s rivers. A popular mode of transport was the horse and every settlement had its stables and blacksmith. In the cities, people either travelled on foot, on horseback or by horse and carriage. In rural areas, horses, oxen and donkeys pulled buggies, wagons and carriages. A journey from New York to the Mississippi Territory would take approximately three weeks and a journey to Virginia, between five days to a week.