User:Jdogwikiedit/Transportation in Appalachia

Rough Draft

edit: paragraph 1: The Appalachian region has always had to allocate much resources and time into transportation due to the regions notable and unique geography. Most notable mountainous terrain and commonly occurring adverse weather effects such as heavy fog and snowfall. Counties and some states that lie on either side of the Appalachian range historically had to find unique ways to travel to the other areas of region. The wide spanning mountains of the Appalachian range means roads even in recent history have been hazardous and taxing on the traveling vehicles. Another notable challenge of Appalachian travel is the political elements of constructing transportation routes. Most travel systems are funded by municipalities, but since The Appalachian area has several different states it can be difficult for the various governments to agree on how to work on transportation. The most influential forms of travel in the Appalachian region are based on water trading routes, roads and railroads. Air travel has influenced the Appalachian region but the impact is less pronounced.

Paragraph 3 (water section): One important element of water based transportation in the region is the Potomac. The upper Potomac and its various off-shooting tributaries are commonly used methods of transportation to initiate trade. While the Potomac is known now as more of a tourist attraction, historically, the riverboats of commerce would allow easy supply of shipments, often flour, to local areas across Appalachia. The area's and communities most impacted by the natural body of water would be those near the edge of western Maryland's border, such as Allegany and Garrett county. Another key use of water transportation was moving heavy resource committees such as lumbar down the flow of the current to move resources in an energy efficient manner. This allows the harvested materials to be moved out of the dense forest without the costly necessities associated with moving them across land. One tool used to assist in water based movement wood was the pike pole. Appalachian lumber workers use pike poles to control logs floating on a river and they use them to constructing log rafts. Pike poles used in log rafting were originally made of wood, often spruce wood, more modern versions of the tool are almost always made of various metals however.

Paragraph 4 (railway section): The West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railway was a notable means of transportation throughout Appalachia. It is a large scale railway that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While the four directions the railway went was primarily designed for travel in-between some of the older West Virginian communities (Belington, Huttonsville, Durbin); the track did go to Cumberland, Maryland when traveling north. This means it is a multi-state operating Appalachian travel system like many roads and highways are today. It is also notable for being a positive economic driver, as the track construction was built privately, with the assistance of several subsidiary companies. One issues train based travel had after the forestry boom in parts of Appalachia such as West Virginia was that flooding after rainfall was common as many of the trees and wildlife holding in water were removed for the lumbar industry. The technological progression benefited Appalachian railways however, as advancing tech soon lead to the implementation of crane and lift technology used for lifting heavy materials onto trains for transport. Previously done exhaustibly by hand, the use of the lifts made those lift by hand requirements redundant drastically increasing the productivity of the railway based resource harvesting market.

Paragraph 5 (Highway section): The often ordained "world's first superhighway" and likely the most famous of any Appalachian transportation system is the Pennsylvania Turnpike. One of the impressive things about the turnpike is just how much land it covers. The unbroken weave of roads go through several mountains and across many valleys despite having no stop signs and no intersections. Today the road is over 550 miles long, much larger than it's original length. Roadways are essential not just for commerce but for the resident's of Appalachian to traverse their own communities. Many of the smaller roads in Appalachia have funding issues and are in a state of relative disrepair so the PA turnpikes existences promotes reliable long distance transportation for drivers, supporting economic growth and logistical efficiency. It is also a transportation system with use intended for primarily, albeit not exclusively, citizens person transportation needs. Many of the other influential Appalachian travel are based around the movement of trading items such as the aforementioned riverboats. Moreover, the turnpike was also somewhat different in that it connected Appalachia with external areas that were not Washington D.C.

Source link to add: "Navigation on the Upper Potomac and Its Tributaries (whilbr.org)"

Source link to add: "West Virginia Railroad Museum | Preserving West Virginia's railroad history (wvrailmuseum.com)"

Source link to add: "PA Turnpike History (https://www.paturnpike.com/yourTurnpike/ptc_history.aspx)"