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Maps from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States put travel in the 1800s into perspective.
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
Scoop.it!
Seth Dixon's insight:
This series of maps shows the great leaps and bounds that were made during the 19th century in transportation technology in the United States. This impacted population settlement, economic interactions and functionally made the great distances seem smaller. This is what many call the time-space compression; the friction of distance is diminished as communication and transportation technologies improve.
Questions to Ponder: When someone says they live "10 minutes away," what does that say about how we think about distance, transportation infrastructure and time? How is geography still relevant in a world where distance appears to becoming less of a factor?
Tags: transportation, models, diffusion, globalization, diffusion, time-space.
Ron Sandack Wow. Amazing to think about really.
unit 1
Comparing how long it took to travel even 150 years ago opens up a question on trust. At that time, checking accounts were rare, credit cards non-existent, and every one had to travel with cash. Yet, incidents of robbery were uncommon and trust in the stranger was high. Now travel takes a small fraction of the time it did 150 years ago and strangers are seen as a threat. Trust has eroded, but is it a fear based or fact based erosion? Is travel less safe now than it was in the 1860's?