New York was the commercial and population center of the 13 Colonies and early US, a position it never really ceded, though New York State was surpassed in population by California and then Texas in the 1960s and 1980s. Point-to-point travel from other locations would have been largely similar to
Water travel was the first "highway" system in the US, first along the seacoast, then along rivers, then along canals (notably the Erie Canal, opened in 1825). The Saint Lawrence Seaway, offering deepwater access to Chicago and northern Minnesota, and the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio river systems, offering access to roughly 1/3 of the present conterminious United States, was (and is) hugely important to commerce. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mississippi_watershed_map_...
Rail, then highway, then air travel are faster than ships and barges, but if you want to maximize ton-miles per hour, you bulk-load or container-load a ship or barge. Coal, grain, and other bulk goods simply cannot be moved economically by other means, and issues such as the lack of water flow on the Mississippi River will have huge knock-on effects on commerce.
During the Civil War, the Union focused a great deal of effort on blockading and controlling southern ports, particularly Savannah and New Orleans, through which the bulk of Confederate exports (and revenues) flowed. Chocking off the South's access to finance had a great deal to do with eventual Union victory.
Water travel was the first "highway" system in the US, first along the seacoast, then along rivers, then along canals (notably the Erie Canal, opened in 1825). The Saint Lawrence Seaway, offering deepwater access to Chicago and northern Minnesota, and the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio river systems, offering access to roughly 1/3 of the present conterminious United States, was (and is) hugely important to commerce. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mississippi_watershed_map_...
Rail, then highway, then air travel are faster than ships and barges, but if you want to maximize ton-miles per hour, you bulk-load or container-load a ship or barge. Coal, grain, and other bulk goods simply cannot be moved economically by other means, and issues such as the lack of water flow on the Mississippi River will have huge knock-on effects on commerce.
During the Civil War, the Union focused a great deal of effort on blockading and controlling southern ports, particularly Savannah and New Orleans, through which the bulk of Confederate exports (and revenues) flowed. Chocking off the South's access to finance had a great deal to do with eventual Union victory.