Technology Transformations

Low bridge, ev'rybody down.
Low bridge for we're comin' to a town.
And you'll always know your neighbor
You'll always know your pal,
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal.

----...from Erie Canal Song by Thomas S. Allen

Today we rode almost 80-miles along the Erie Canal and as we read the history signs, it got me thinking about how technology evolves from one paradigm to another. 

The Erie Canal was started in 1817 and finished in 1825, which is just amazing since it is over 400 miles long and was done completely with hand and animal labor for the grand sum of $7M ($170M in 2015 dollars).  But the demand for shipping goods to market and for getting raw materials to factories was so great and the convenience of the canal was so much improved over existing horse drawn wagons, that tolls and fees for the canal paid off the cost of construction in less than a year!

Today's canal is much wider than it was back then, since it's been widened and deepened three times since it was first built. The last major improvement to the canal was completed in 1918 and was done to counter the competition that railroads were exerting.  But railroads were so much faster, more convenient, less expensive, and more reliable, that for all intents and purposes, railroads had completely derailed the Erie Canal by 1923. 

In the '60s, Eisenhower's interstate system was being developed at a furious pace and by the '80s, trucking had taken over a large portion of the railroad's business, while the corporations combined with each other, downsized, laid off workers, or just went out of business.  And yes, railroads still haul loads of coal, containers, and other materials, but I'm guessing that their portion of freight haulage is a fraction of what it used to be.  I really got a kick out of this scene - a passenger jet flying over a highway bridge which is higher than a railroad bridge, all over the Erie Canal!

So the big question is what new technology will take over from the trucks.  Will it be unmanned drones delivering packages ala Amazon.com or something else?
I will close with a couple of bird pictures from today's ride, one of some turkey vultures on a bridge and another of one of many herons we saw on the canal bank.