Have you ever looked at a map of U.S. interstate highways? East Coast interstates zig and zag across the map, creating an ocean of blue routes from east to west, north to south. Often, the areas with the most interstate interchanges on a map are coastal cities or those near large bodies of water, such as the Great Lakes. There’s a reason for that.

Interstates represent both a large population and a busy freight corridor. These freight corridors, while a 20th-century concept developed with the U.S. Interstate System, have their roots in pre-colonial tribal trade routes and colonial trade routes dating back to the 1600s and 1700s.

Freight corridors and cities have been built along waterways since time immemorial. Not only is water essential for life, but before trucks, water made it easier to move large quantities of goods from one population center to another.  

The Thirteen Colonies were founded similarly. The British expansion into the Americas was driven by economic interests and the bolstering of England’s trade networks during the era of mercantilism, according to History.com. All of the British colonies settled on inland rivers and “tidewater regions,” which ensured ease of access for “ocean-navigating ships to bring supplies from the Atlantic directly to inland rivers,” Civics for Life states.

In the 1600s, inland routes connecting settlements and cities were also established for trade and mail. Three of the oldest of these routes are found in Connecticut, which connected Boston with New York. Today, Interstates 95, 91, and 84 follow these centuries-old routes. From 1650 to 1735, the King’s Highway—named in honor of King Charles II, who ordered its construction—connected Boston to Charleston. Much of the road is still in use today, though it has been modernized over the years. 

Even with the formation of King’s Highway, many roads traveled in the 1700s were trails established by Native Americans that had simply been widened, according to historians from Colonial Williamsburg. 

Though we would consider colonial roads trails today, they were heavily traveled on foot, on horseback, or in carriages. Yet, according to National Geographic, moving goods along these roads was expensive, leading farmers and artisans to primarily transport goods by water.

Goods transportation in the 1700s and 1800s: Roads, rail, and canal routes 

The National Road experienced heavy traffic. One type of wagon that drove the route, called the Conestoga, was “designed to carry heavy freight both east and west over the Allegheny Mountains,” according to NPS. One could consider these the tractor-trailers of the 1800s. It took a team of six horses to pull this wagon over 15 miles on an average day.

By 1892, the National Road was essentially killed off by the locomotive, as travelers opted to journey via rail instead of wagon and horseback. 

The introduction of canals also aided in the transportation of goods. New York’s Erie Canal, completed in 1825, connected the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and out to the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly after, New York became the United States’ largest shipping and trade port. Chicago, resting on the banks of Lake Michigan, also grew rapidly, thanks to other Great Lakes canal projects.

By the mid-1800s, steam locomotives were the preferred method of goods movement, and along with canals, they allowed Americans to expand further into the Midwest, as they offered “an efficient and relatively inexpensive means to deliver their goods to market,” according to National Geographic.

In the 1870s, as populations grew and the bicycle became a popular mode of transportation, a group of cyclists championed the Good Roads Movement, an initiative to “build and improve the condition of U.S. roads,” according to Britannica. The group hoped to get farmers involved in their mission by publishing a “Letter to the American Farmer” in 1891, emphasizing that improved roads would help farmers get their goods to market. The call for better roads became more widespread.

Goods transportation gets back on the road

However, by the 1950s, truck-hauled freight increased to 17% of all freight-ton miles, thanks to the post-World War II economic boom. This—along with an eye on national defense—led President Dwight D. Eisenhower to revisit a federal highway program; he tasked another committee with finding a way to fund a national interstate system. When Eisenhower presented this committee’s report to Congress, he stated:

“Our unity as a nation is sustained by free communication of thought and by easy transportation of people and goods. The ceaseless flow of information through the Republic is matched by individual and commercial movement over a vast system of interconnected highways crisscrossing the country and joining it at our national borders with friendly neighbors to the north and south.”

The Federal-Aid Highway Act was passed in 1956, and it funded the interstate system we travel today.

The Highway Cost Allocation Report, released in 1961, detailed the shift in goods transport from rail to truck after the construction of the national interstate system. Goods that shifted from rail to road transportation in large percentages included consumables, such as fruits and vegetables, petroleum products, and steel shipments to factories, according to the report. 

Shipment of goods by truck has grown since then. Today, trucks haul more than 70% of America’s freight, according to the American Trucking Associations, and are the lifeblood of American life as we know it.

The road to America’s modern-day transportation system and logistics network is older than America itself, but analyzing the history of transportation makes it evident that goods transport played a large part in transportation advancement and the settlement of America’s rural heartland.