United States, ships and trains.

In 1800, Americans elected Thomas Jefferson as their third president. Jefferson had a wish. He wanted to discover a waterway that crossed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. He wanted to build a system of trade Trade: The action of buying and selling goods and services that connected people throughout the country. At that time the United States did not stretch all the way across the continent.
Jefferson proposed that ART-N of explorers travel across North America in search of such a waterway. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the exploration west from 1803 to 1806. They discovered that the Rocky Mountains divided the land. They also found no coast-to-coast waterway.
So Jefferson decided that a different A-N would best connect A-N. This system involved roads, rivers and railroads. It also included the diggingTo dig: Break up and move earth with a tool or machine, or with hands, paws, snout, etc. of waterways.
By the middle of the 1800s, A-N had been built in parts of the nation. The use of river steamboats increased. Boats also traveled along A-N which strengthenedTo strengthen: Make or become stronger local economies.
The American railroad system began.A-N did not believe train technology would work. In time, railroads became the most popular form of land transportation in the United States.
In 19th-century American culture, railroads were more than just a way to travel. Trains also found their way into the works of writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman.
In 1876, the United States celebrated its 100th birthday. By now, there were new ways to move people and goods between farms, towns and cities. ART-N of business changed. Lives improved.
Within those first 100 years, transportation links had helped form a new national economy.