America Transformed: Engineering and Technology in the Nineteenth Century : Selections from the Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service

From a fledgling agrarian nation clinging to the Atlantic seaboard in 1800, the United States by the 1900s was the world's leading industrial nation, manufacturing a third of the world's industrial output. Through nearly 200 photographs and drawings, America Transformed: Engineering and Technology in the Nineteenth Century highlights not only the obvious icons of achievement such as the Brooklyn Bridge and Erie Canal but also the development of the nation's industrial, manufacturing, and transportation infrastructure. Development and innovation in mining; textile, iron and steel mills; water treatment, power and irrigation systems, canals, railroads and bridges all served to transform American life. In 1969 the National Park Service, the Library of Congress, and the American Society of Civil Engineers formed the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) program to document nationally and regionally significant engineering and industrial sites. HAER documentation--in the forms of measured and interpretive drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories--record for posterity the enormous historic engineering and industrial legacy of the United States. Using these resources, Dean Herrin has created a visual sampler of America's nineteenth-century engineering and technology that illuminates the scope and variety of America's industrial transformation "From a fledgling agrarian nation clinging to the Atlantic seaboard in 1800, the United States by 1900 was the world's leading industrial nation, producing a third of the world's industrial output. Through nearly 200 photographs and drawings, America Transformed: Engineering and Technology in the Nineteenth Century highlights not only the obvious icons of achievement such as the Brooklyn Bridge and Erie Canal but also the development of the nation's industrial, manufacturing, and transportation infrastructure. Development and innovation in mining; textile, iron, and steel mills; water treatment, power, and irrigation systems; and canals, railroads, and bridges all transformed American life."--Jacket. Read more... Abstract: From a fledgling agrarian nation clinging to the Atlantic seaboard in 1800, the United States by the 1900s was the world's leading industrial nation, manufacturing a third of the world's industrial output. This book highlights the development of the nation's industrial, manufacturing, and transportation infrastructure. Read more... Content: Introduction: The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the HAER -- Prologue: Discovering the New Technological World -- Ch. 1. Wealth of Resources -- Harvesting the Land: Forest and Field -- Closer Look: Long Island Windmills -- Drawing from Beneath: Mining and Oil -- Urban Necessities: Water and Gas -- Ch. 2. Making Things -- Cotton, Cards, and Clothes: Textiles -- Hell with the Lid Off: Iron and Steel -- With Heat and Hammer: From Charcoal to Carriages -- Closer Look: By the Sweat of Their Brow: Workers -- How Things Work: Power -- Ch. 3. Structures and Materials -- Structure of Structures: Materials and Connections -- Different Path: Vernacular Technology -- Closer Look: Engineering Embellished: Design & Ornamentation -- Ch. 4. Going Places -- By Water: Canals and Maritime -- Iron Horse: Railroads -- Closer Look: East Broad Top Railroad -- Spanning the Century: Bridges -- Epilogue: Ruins and Remembrance.