Wealth and Power Associated with Transportation Systems The average walking speed of an adult is three to four miles per hour. As technology evolves, people are able to travel farther and deliver goods faster, and the world continues to become a smaller place. In real everyday life, wealth and power are tied to control of transportation. The creators of literature and cinema repeatedly pay homage to this fact, especially when they can cast their protagonist as the villain. In the novel “The Financier” (Dreiser, 2008) Frank Cowperwood risked the loss of his personal freedom in an attempt to gain control of a streetcar system. In the film “Wall Street” (Stone, 1987) Gordon Gekko took the same risks in an attempt to take control of a small airline. Even though “The Financier” and “Wall Street” were created more than 75 years apart, both works recognize the importance of transportation systems. However, are transportation systems critical to the evolution of society or are they simply a way for financial speculators to make money? If you wanted to travel a significant distance in the United States in the early 19th century, your options were limited; you could walk, ride a horse, or use some type of cart powered by horses or oxen. If you were lucky enough to be near a river, you could save some wear and tear on your shoes by traveling by canoe or boat, but that required someone to paddle, at least when traveling against the current. But in 1807, an inventor named Robert Fulton created the first steamboat, and the nature of transportation changed forever. (Hattaway, 1997) Until then, the transportation of people and goods was a slow and tedious process. Even as the country had grown... in the middle of the paper... America, 1840-1900. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.McNeil, I. (2002). An encyclopedia of the history of technology. London: Routledge.Osterbrook, D. E. (1999). Yerkes Observatory, 1892-1950: birth, near-death, and resurrection of a scientific research institute. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Patrick, J. J. (2001). The Supreme Court of the United States: A Student Companion. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.Schlichting, K. C. (2001). Grand Central Terminal: Railroads, Engineering, and Architecture in New York City. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Stone, O. (writer), and Stone, O. (editor). (1987). Wall Street [film]. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Teaford, J. C. (1994). City of the Heart: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Midwest. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.