Gasoline Age: History Of Transportation Part II (1958)

you [Music] the year is 1900 America is at the height of a teenage the steam engine is the nation's prime mover but what of local transportation found it is it still the horse and buggy named local travel moves no faster than it has for thousands of years [Music] then comes a new town too many the first automobiles the horseless carriages are just a hobby a sports a fast but soon the gasoline engine is making over the whole American scene for the first time in history ordinary people can own their own personal machine for traveling a machine better than any king or Emperor ever had in the past [Music] the road that first are almost impassable but the highway builders go to work and our road system develops rapidly by 1940 the nation is covered with a great network of highways those by counties States and by the federal government most of the main roads are federal route us one down the East Coast us two along the northern border odd numbers run north and south even numbers run east and west today like veins and arteries in a living body our roads carry the lifeblood of the nation's Commerce and travel into every corner of the land divided lanes make for safety Express highways have no cross traffic and a system of state toll road let autos travel many hours without even slowing down what is this great mobility done to our country at first city transportation depended on the horse and carriage a man couldn't live far from where he worked the carriage is put on Rails in the early 1800s and this was the first street car but the going was still there is slow the transportation was speeded up with the cable car and the electric streetcar of the early nineteen hundred with elevated train and the subway these basic forms of city transportation are still used today but they've been modernized the electric streetcar would streamline the gasoline engine to was put to work and in most cities today buses have taken over the job of moving people that is those who are driving their own car [Music] the city is changed twice each day we have that remarkable city phenomenon known as the rush hour [Music] today's city dweller is no longer held in by the city limit today we talk about metropolitan areas with suburban towns around the city like so many satellites America has become a nation of automobile owners old job that the horse and buggy days have given way to a vast new industry with so much of our population on wheels today there's a freedom of movement that is new in the history of man we have a much greater choice in where we live anywhere within driving distance shopping centers have sprung up away from the crowded City anywhere there's plenty of parking space industries that moved out of the cities or the day they can draw their workers from miles around once industries were tied down to railroad line many still depend on the railroad for large shipment but many others have moved off the railroad line for a day they can move their materials by truck short hauls within the city long hauls across the cosmos many of these trucks are powered by diesel engines close cousins to the gasoline engine trucks have taken over a large share of the nation's transportation sometimes trucks and railroads combined in a piggyback ride on the rails or long distances railroad still are very important in the transportation picture the railroads are the heavy carriers the long-distance hauler car load lock train load lock this is the kind of transportation the railroad still provide [Music] yet track mileage has been eroding from the peak in 1920 of 250 3,000 miles to less than 200 24,000 miles today the giant electric diesel powered by fuel oil has taken over from a steam locomotive another mover of heavy freight has gained importance in the past few decades our inland waterways move back Punishers in huge load they were the nation's first main arteries of Commerce and today they are gaining and important diesel engines power the mighty tobel today's mass production needs mass movement and big loads make the waterways economical today our waterways wheat into much of the continent most important are the Atlantic system the Great Mississippi River system and the sade Lawrence Great Lakes system this system improved by the st. Lawrence Seaway now let ol shun ships leap the five Great Lakes deep into the interior of North America [Music] the diesel engines power our ocean liners too and make overseas travel faster and more comfortable these are some of the changes brought by engines which burn gasoline or oil now let's go back to the turn of the century the beginning of the gasoline age and pick up another thread aviation the gasoline motor made possible at first flight of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk in nineteen three they were the first to be successful out of many who were experimenting the airplane developed slowly at first as with the automobile is coming important wasn't recognized the airplane has speed something we've always wanted a transportation soon commercial aircraft were flying passengers and freight and flying the mail airplanes are bigger and faster no longer is air travel only for passengers of the mail today air freight is being used more and more by the end of the Second World War nearly every town of any size at it therefore an today commercial aviation is moving ahead in great step the airplane has added a new dimension to our growing freedom of movement commercial airlines cover the nation and beyond and small charter airplanes fill in the spaces today a company can have plants in many parts of the country and send its executives from one to another in a few hours today overseas travel by air is only a matter of a few hours this has helped speed up our interest in foreign trade during World War Two Jet Propulsion was introduced and today Jet Propulsion is bringing added speed and size to commercial aviation after World War two the helicopter was perfected it overcomes one of the great problems of air travel the dependent on an airport with long runways [Music] helicopters can land in a small space even on a rooftop in the middle of the city they're used today for short-haul transportation of passengers mail and of a special uses where speed is important but they aren't yet efficient enough or fast enough to compete for long distance trap today we're on the threshold of other great improvements in transportation there will be bettered automobiles and better roads but in addition new sources of power are being developed which may eventually bring the gasoline age to an end atomic power for transportation rocket power for transportation these are symbols of our ceaseless drive to conquer space and time [Music]