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Railway network in the United States at the start of the US Civil War (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/historyillustrations@lemmy.world
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Map of the United States with railways at the start of the civil war.
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[–] 78 points 1 year ago (24 children)

I think a more recent map is more interesting:

Remember, America was not built for the car, as ignorant people often claim. It was demolished for the car.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    What's crazy to me is that many of the railroads still exist and are used... But for freight only.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I looked at taking the train from Albuquerque to Denver, it goes east to Chicago before going back to Denver. It is a 7 hour drive, but a 32 hour train ride.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    To be fair, we're using really fucking old technology so it's not surprising that it's that much slower.

    If we had proper high speed rail, like the Shinkansen, it would be much shorter.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    There is also the fact for a 450 mile trip you have to go 2300 miles.

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  • [+] -6 points 1 year ago (15 children)

    Cars are much more convenient than railroads

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  • [+] 6 points 1 year ago* (11 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago

    No u see railroads were before cars. We humans made a choice to use cars. That's because they were drastically more convenient.

    I don't want to use the railroad I'm sorry. I would rather have a car. I mean yes I want a flying car, I want an electric car - but its still need to be an individual means of transportation I don't need to share with anyone and with a cargo compartment.

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  • [+] -8 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    No we cannot. There is no way trains would be more convenient than cars. Have u tried going to the store and bringing a cart of groceries home? I have.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Then make stores we can just walk to in like 10 minutes. Then you don’t need to take a whole cart of groceries home and you can just go shopping every day for whatever you need

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I want to go shopping every day?? I work for a living.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    I go to one of the 5 stores close to my home several times a week, sometimes multiple times the same day. We have gone insanely overboard with store density, but it's completely feasible to have small stores everywhere if the incentive are there.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    I mean sure. I just wish I had the choice and could do cars for just the last miles.

    Cars are more convenient than a bus route locally but long distance travel where everyone can sleep to be rested for vacation and there no big security theater for local travel and I just keep my bags and snacks? Ugh so good.

    It doesn't have to be more convenient in destination choices but in travel I think it has some positives.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I'd take trains for long trips, but no way could I get by without a car. How would I carry our family's crap to the beach, camp, lake? How would I get 15 sacks of groceries home? Forget hitting the hardware story for much of anything.

    OTOH, I'd love to hop a train and roll to New Orleans or Mobile for a day trip.

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