Transportation in the Modern World

[Music] [Music] foreign [Music] this is a story of how people and things are moved from place to place a story of transportation in today's world a story in which speed and time and distance are of great importance in the world of yesterday men could not feed themselves or their goods from one place to another travel took time great amounts of time and distance was often a barrier to travel men had to depend on the wind on their own efforts or on animals transportation of the past was slow and time consuming but over thousands of years men developed it from what it was to what it is today travel is faster today and great distances no longer prevent the movement of people and things from place to place this is transportation today and it is important in many ways modern transportation is important to industry let's look at this steel mill here are some railroad cars filled with coke for the mill and nearby is a ship filled with iron ore the mill must have coke made from coal and iron ore to operate raw materials come from mine several hundreds of miles away transportation makes it possible to locate factories long distances from their sources of raw materials the products of this mill will go long distances too modern transportation also makes this possible raw materials and finished products can be transported quickly from place to place by train because of modern rail transportation great loads of materials can be moved overland with ease raw materials and finished products can go by boat along rivers across lakes and over oceans again great loads can be moved modern shipping is not affected by wind as much as shipping of the past was smaller loads that have shorter distances to go can travel by the truck along roads and highways where time and distance are major factors small loads can be moved rapidly by airplanes yes modern transportation makes it possible for users everywhere to share both raw materials and finished products because of modern transportation factories can be located almost anywhere producing goods for people almost everywhere modern transportation is important to people who must travel from one place to another this boy depends on a bus to get him quickly to school several miles away modern transportation is important too when people want to travel away from where they live to visit to sightsee to get to vacation spots or for business they can go by bus or a car over roads and highways which reach every community in our country they can go by trains which connect all the major cities and many smaller towns and communities travel by air is fastest and especially important as a time saver when great distances must be covered over land or water ships provide comfortable and safe means of travel over water when the traveler is not in a hurry to reach his destination many of our simpler forms of transportation are used mostly for pleasure sailboats boats canoes bicycles and horses too so you can see that means of transportation can give us pleasure as well as carry us from place to place transportation is vital to the existence of cities it helps to keep the business of the city going means of transportation in the city are complex and varied there are buses which follow certain routes making most parts of a city especially its business area easy to reach taxi cabs and private cars can go more directly to places in the city along the streets that connect all its parts in the very large cities there are subway trains and elevated trains that run over or under street traffic along more permanent routes than buses they carry large numbers of people quickly from place to place trains carry people into the city from the suburbs where they live directly to the business section of the city where they work so it's easy to see that cities couldn't get along without many means of transportation to carry people quickly from place to place within and near the city but transportation is important to a city for more than this it is also necessary for bringing important goods into a city here are docks in the city where ships come from many places to unload cargo [Music] and to load cargo to carry to other places here are freight yards where great trains come from all parts of the country with goods for the city where new trains are formed for taking goods to other cities trucks come into the city each day with foods grown on nearby farms without this food the people of a great city would starve so you can see that this city depends on transportation to bring important goods to it from outside all cities depend on transportation for this reason no great city could exist without the many means of transportation in use today and many cities have become great because they've become centers of transportation some cities on lakes and oceans and rivers became great ports other cities became great as rail centers transportation has helped bring greatness to our cities and to our nation highways are everywhere cars and buses and trucks can travel to every tiny town and major city of our land rivers and lakes are highways for ships carrying great cargos [Music] highways of rails carry long trains of people and goods from one place to another the air is a great highway for airplanes making places which were formally days apart now only hours apart transportation links most parts of our country and because of its great importance we are always trying to improve our forms of transportation think of how the automobile has been improved [Music] and the train and steamship [Music] and airplanes the use and development of modern means of transportation has helped our country become wealthy and take its place as a major power in the world community our nation's near and distant parts are tied together people products and raw materials can be carried quickly and easily from place to place we have increased the comfort of travel shorten the time of travel and overcome the barriers of distance modern transportation ties our nation and the world closer together [Music] you