United States Exhibiting the Railroads & Canals

Mapping America’s early infrastructure.

This fascinating map of the United States highlights the nation’s growing network of canals and railroads during the 1830s. These were the primary avenues by which people and goods were transported to and from the coastal regions to America’s interior.

Railroads are shown as chartered, under construction, and completed, with the first category making up the vast majority of routes. Waterborne transit remained the method of choice, though improvements in the steam engine coupled with an increasing upkeep cost of canals would shift the balance during the 1840s and 1850s.

The map was published in Boston in 1835 by the American Stationer’s Company as part of Thomas Bradford’s Comprehensive Atlas Geographical Historical and Commercial.