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The Canadian Royal Army Engineers start work on four small canals on the north shore of the St. Lawrence at Montreal to connect Lake St. Louis to Lake St. Francis.
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The Lancaster Turnpike opens connecting Lancaster and Philadelphia, PA, providing travelers an easier route to the Northwest territory.
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Robert Fulton demonstrates the practicality of steamboats, which makes it easier to transport people and products. Steamboats soon became important in the western trade.
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The Civil War becomes the first major conflict in which railroads play a major role, Both sides in the conflict use trains to move troops and supplies.
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Samuel Van Syckel opens the nation's first successful commercial pipeline in northwestern PA. The five-mile long iron pipeline connects the town of Pithole to the Oil Creek railroad. A pipeline boom follows.
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Alfred Beach opens a pneumatic subway under Broadway in New York City.
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Frank Julian Sprague puts the first electric streetcar into operation in Richmond, VA. Streetcars are eventually used in 850 American towns and cities.
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The first experimental routes for rural free delivery of mail are established in West Virginia.
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Engineers built a demonstration section of a steel road at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, NE
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Henry Ford begins selling his Model T. The automobile is the first to be built using an assembly line.
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The Department of Agriculture establishes the Division of Highway Bridges and Culverts (later changed to the Bridge Division).
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On June 16, CAA officially opens Washington National Airport for full-time operations.
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President Jimmy Carter signs into law the Motor Carrier Regulatory Reform and Modernization Act, which allows trucking companies greater freedom over rates and other business decisions, while allowing for open entry of new trucking firms.
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President Bill Clinton signs the Swift Rail Development Act of 1994, providing for national high-speed rail initiatives.
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On April 1,FAA issues the world's first license for a sub-orbital manned rocket flight.
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On January 27, in a luncheon speech to the Aero Club of Washington, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta announces plans for a new, next generation air transportation system with expanded capacity to relieve congestion, prevent gridlock, and secure America's place as global leader in aviation's second century.
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President Barack Obama signed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). The authorization bill governs federal surface transportation spending. The act reduces and consolidates bicycle and pedestrian transportation into a program called Transportation Alternatives, mandates development of a national freight policy, reforms tolling on federal highways, and gives electronic toll collection facilities until October 1, 2016.
