y," but they did discover that the Rocky Mountains divided the country (Moss, 2004). In the absence of the waterway, Jefferson decided to build a network of "roads, rivers, and railroads" and to dig waterways to connect communities across America (Moss, 2004). By the mid-1800s, America boasted dirt roads, river steamboats, manmade canals, and the beginning of the American railroad system, all of which "strengthened local economies" (Moss, 2004). By 1876, the new pathways for moving people and goods "between farms, towns and cities" changed the way business flowed and improved lives, forming "a new national economy" (Moss, 2004). Although large cities were now connected, smaller communities had to "build links to the railroads" so that they could use rail transport for carrying their crops to ports, where ships could "carry the goods around the world"
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