By the middle of the 19th century, the United States had all of the ingredients to fuel an Industrial Revolution, including the natural resources. There was plenty of iron ore for making iron and steel products, for building factories and housing, and coal and water for powering machines.
and natural gas could be used as power sources as well. To turn these raw materials into something useful, they had to be transported to the country 's new manufacturing centers. There they would be made into finished products.
At first, that job fell to steamships that ferried cargo along North America 's rivers and to barges that pushed the cargo down canals. The Erie Canal, in 1825, allowed goods to be shipped by boat or barge from the Great Lakes all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
But the boats could
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Business grew rapidly, much of it by the steel industry. With larger quantities of iron ore being transported to factories, more steel could be made. More steel allowed for the laying of more railroad tracks. With more tracks in place, factories could ship their products to more customers. One built on the next, and the Industrial Revolution grew and expanded.
The invention of the telephone also distant areas. Many inventors were trying to use electricity to send the human voice over wire, but it was Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson who succeeded. On March 10, 1876, Bell spoke through his "talking telegraph" to his assistant down the hall. "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you," Bell said. Watson heard him clearly. Bell received a(n) that year and started Bell Telephone Company the next year. By 1904, there were more than 3 million phones in American businesses and homes.
These advances in transportation and connected the vast nation that is the United States. Resources and goods traveled across states and regions. The population, however, flowed in one direction: from farming areas to manufacturing centers. Farming was no longer driving the American . Industry