Transportation costs dropped 95% in the 1800s

There are a lot of data points on travel cost and travel time during the first half of the 1800s mentioned by Allen Guelzo in his fantastic book, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President.

Here is the most amazing part:

Overall drop in cost to transport freight with canals, steamboats, and railroads (location 641):

• 95%

I want to accumulate some of these tidbits since I’m amazed at the radical change created by technology.

Transportation time and cost

Consider:

Travel by stagecoach:

• 1810 – 4 weeks travel time – stagecoach from Nashville to Washington city (now D.C.) (Location 612 of 7046)
• 1810 – $10 to $11 – stagecoach from Boston to New York (L612)

Cost to move one hundred pounds of freight from Louisville to New Orleans (L629):

• 1810 – $5.00 by flatboat
• 1830 – $2.00 by steamboat
• 1850 – $0.25 by steamboat
• 95% drop

Steamboats on Mississippi, Ohio, and tributaries (L630):

• 1820 – 31
• c.1830 – 361 (date Lincolns arrived Sangamon is circa 1830, Location 560)

Impact of Erie Canal, 363 miles built over seven years at cost of $7M (L635). Cost and time before and after construction:

• Cost per ton:
• $100 before – 27.5 cents per ton per mile
• $    6 after – 1.6 cent/ton/mile
• 94% drop
• Transit time:
• 45 days before
•   5 days after
• 89% drop

Steam powered rail (L636):

• 1828 – first commercial railroad, in Baltimore
• 1859 – rail reaches to Appalachian mountains at cost of 3 cents/ton/mile

Miles of railroad track in state of Illinois (L2288):

• 1840 – 26 miles
• 1860 – close to 3,000 miles

Salaries

Here are a couple of data points for salaries:

• 1835 – Lincoln had debts of over $1,100 when the shop he co-owned failed, which amount is 4-5 times “annual earnings of  an ordinary laborer” (L926)
• 1850s – his salary from quite successful legal practice averages $3,000 a year, which is around 8 or 10 times “average working-class income” (L2407)

From that we can calculate average wages as reported in the book:

• 1835 – $220 to $275 a year – “ordinary laborer”
• 1850s – $300 to $375 a year – “Average working-class income”

Cost of Boston-NYC stagecoach in 1810 compared to train today

Pushing the 1835 salary backwards to the $10-$11 cost for a stage ride from Boston to New York in 1810 would translate into travel cost in the following ranges:

• 2.4 weeks to 2.6 weeks salary at $220 annual pay
• 1.9 weeks to 2.1 weeks salary at $275 annual pay

At $30,000 today, that would be equal to something between $1,091 and $1,500 to get from Boston to New York. At $50,000 annual income today, that would be a range of $1,800 to $2,500.

Today a trip on Amtrak will cost $52 from Boston to New York. That is a drop of between 95% and 98%.

At some point in the future, I would like to aggregate all the specific data points I’ve accumulated on the blog.