DELIVERING THE MAIL
For years, people have used written communication as one of their primary means of exchanging information. Those using this form of communicating have depended on the U.S. mail to transport their messages from one place to another.
For much of American history, the mail was our main form of organized communication. Americans wanting to know the state of the world, the health of a friend, or the fate of their business anxiously awaited the mail. To advise a distant relative, to order goods, to pay a bill, to express views to their congressman or love to their fiancée, they used the mail. No American institution has been more intimately involved in daily hopes and fears. The history of the U.S. mail is not only interesting
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In 1813, five years after Robert Fulton’s first experiments on the Hudson River, Congress authorized the Post Office to transport mail by steamboat. Transporting mail to river cities worked very well. However the efficiency of using steamboats to transport mail between New York and San Francisco was questionable. “The distance was 19,000 miles and the trip could take as long as six to seven months.”
Railroads
Although mail was carried by railroads as early as 1834, it was not until 1838, that Congress declared railroads to be post roads. Trains eventually revolutionized mail delivery. The cost of sending a letter decreased substantially, making it more affordable to the public.
No aspect of American life was untouched by the revolution that the trains brought in bringing mail service almost to the level of a free good. (For many years – ironically enough, until the depression called for an increase in the cost of a first-class letter to three cents – an ordinary first-letter went for two cents.)
Pony Express The Pony Express was one of the most colorful means of transporting mail. This method of delivery was used to take mail to St. Joseph, Missouri,