Insight Guides: USA on the Road

Introduction: Were on the Road to Somewhere

Americans are always on the move. A French observer in the 1800s identified this unique trait and called it restlessness amidst prosperity.

The most basic images of American life the heavy wagon train rumbling across the prairie, a railroad car speeding through the night, the arrival of immigrants at Ellis Island are powerful symbols of the United States timeless obsession with movement. In fact, in a nation where change is the only constant, movement and travel have established the ever-quickening tempo of American history, from Lewis and Clarks exploration of the territories west of the Mississippi River, to Neil Armstrongs historic walk on the moon.

If the exploration and colonization of America is an example of travel, is there any real connection with the day trip into the countryside? Is it possible seriously to suggest that the 17th-century Puritan seeking refuge in Boston has anything in common with the 22-year-old computer whiz who moves from Lexington, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington, in search of a higher-paying job? Do Lewis and Clark have any common bond with vacationers of the 1950s rolling down Route 66?

Every one of these travelers believed that movement might bring prosperity, discovery, and renewal. The difference lies in the purpose of the journey. Travel in pre-modern America was a very serious affair: an essential part of discovering and populating the continent. While a few wealthy Americans embarked on European wanderjahrs , and some even traveled for pleasure to Newport and Saratoga Springs, we do not associate such ease and comfort with the days of old. Rather, we recall Daniel Boone leading pioneers through the Cumberland Gap; young men heeding Horace Greeleys advice and going West to grow up with the country; the Mormons perilous flight across the Great Plains; or the stagecoach company that warned its riders not to point out where murders have been committed, especially if there are women passengers. Given the harsh landscape, we think of travel in early America as a dangerous and epic adventure.

In the early 21st century, when we take a trip there is little heroic about it. Yet, Americans still migrate for economic reasons, particularly to the Sunbelt states in the South, or to the Pacific Northwest. But this isolated movement of people lacks the drama of the pioneers, or the great Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s, immortalized in the ballads of Woody Guthrie and in John Steinbecks novel The Grapes of Wrath . Still, it is very likely that future historians will judge this movement to be as significant a force as it was in past times.

The number of automobiles in America today suggests that the experience of travel is now available to almost everyone. Travel has been democratized, and plays no small role in contributing to the American tendency to view cars, boats, and planes as symbols of equality. For better or worse, to be an American is to believe that personal liberty and the freedom to travel are inseparable.

Is there any truth in this belief? Is there a vital link between the uniquely democratic culture of the United States and the transportation revolution of the past two centuries? Michael Chevalier thought so. Chevalier, a French aristocrat sent to the United States in the 1830s to study its public works, believed that improved means of travel would hasten the collapse of the old order and play an important role in the emergence of modern society. During his tour, he was amazed by the readiness with which Americans embraced new means of travel: first (after initial disinterest), roads had been constructed with passionate intensity, then canal building had become a national mania. And Chevalier bore witness to the birth of the age of the railroad, for which he rightly forecast a glorious future.

As avenues of economic exchange opened to increasing numbers of people, both ideas and populations were transmitted hither and yon along with pelts, peppers, and teas. Travel became, in Chevaliers words, a catalyst to equality and liberty.