Driving is a huge part of life for millions of people. We drive to go to family's and friends' houses; we drive to go to work and school; we drive to go to the store. You probably ride in some sort of vehicle every day. With so many drivers on the road, staying safe while traveling in the car is an important part of any trip.
In today's world, where we routinely zip down the highway at 70 miles per hour and we can fly coast-to-coast in a matter of hours, it is hard to imagine the revolution in transportation that took place in the 1800s. From a world where most people rarely traveled faster than their legs could carry them or much beyond their home towns, the 1800s witnessed an amazing and rapid development of technology, improvements in infrastructure, and a national will to conquer the vast distances of a growing country. Through the work of inventors, individual entrepreneurs, and municipalities, Americans found new opportunities for traveling conveniently from place to place within their communities, and a frontier nation was unified by rail, by road, and by a sense of national identity. This is the story of nineteenth century America on the move!
