Transportation in Alabama | |
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Overview | |
Transit type | Rapid transit, commuter rail, buses, private automobile, Taxicab, bicycle, pedestrian |
Operation | |
Operator(s) | Alabama Department of Transportation |
The transportation system of Alabama is a cooperation of complex systems of infrastructure.
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Alabama's transportation and development play a large part in the history of Alabama. From the rivers and streams to the aerospace industry, Alabama's transportation is constantly growing and evolving. In the early periods of time, water transport was the most substantial means of travel. Water transportation in Alabama began with steamboats, with the first steamboat being the Alabama that was launched in 1818 on the Alabama River. A couple years after the launch of the first steamboat, Alabama began the development of railroad transportation. Railroads solved an abundance of transportation problems and formed opportunities for businessmen. Alabama's first railroad, the Tuscumbia Railway, opened in 1832 in Franklin County. Railroads began to connect Alabama to the rest of the country. In addition, railroads played a major part in the agriculture, politics, and businesses of Alabama. Following the development of railroads, in the beginning of the twentieth century, the Good Roads Movement was organized in efforts to advance modern roads and to persuade the government to further fund the construction and maintenance of the roads. In the early 1900s, the Good Roads movement brought about change in the Alabama state law, which allowed for the production of state highways. This even went a long way in to the 1920s, where the first of many long-distance highways were created in Alabama. Although building the modern roads seemed to bring a rise in the efficiency of transportation, there were some downfalls to building these roads. A big downfall to the production of roads was the high level of maintenance that they required, such as cutting trees, pulling stumps, leveling, and shoveling eroded dirt. In 1898, John H. Bankhead and John Asa Rountree founded the North Alabama Good Roads Association. This organization was focused on improving transportation by having the state highways paid for by the state government and administered by the state highway commission. This was only the beginning of transportation in Alabama. In 1910, aviation in Alabama came into play. Wilbur and Orville Wright formed the first landing sight in Alabama, which is now known as the Maxwell Air Force Base. During World War I, aviation in Alabama became very popular; there were a good number of Alabamians who joined the war and received flight training. In addition, Alabama's airports played a significant role in World War II, by coordinating the movement of troops and providing training facilities for troops as well as support personnel. Besides water transportation, modern roads, railroads, and aviation, aerospace is Alabama's largest industrial industry. With major sites of the Marshall Space Flight Center and the Redstone Arsenal located in Hunstville, Alabama, Alabama's aerospace industry consists of four sectors: space, defense, aviation, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul. Transportation in Alabama has come a long way from steamboats to rocket ships and transportation continues to develop throughout the years.
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Alabama is criss-crossed by many major roadways.
The Port of Mobile, Alabama's only saltwater port, is a busy seaport on the Gulf of Mexico with inland waterway access to the Midwest by way of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The Port of Mobile is currently the 9th-largest by tonnage in the United States. [1]
Barge transportation in and out of the Port of Tuscaloosa and other commercial navigation make the Black Warrior River useful in the state of Alabama.
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Transport in Colombia is regulated by the Ministry of Transport.
Transport in Ukraine includes ground transportation, water, air transportation, and pipelines. The transportation sector accounts for roughly 11% of the country's gross domestic product and 7% of total employment.
The vast majority of passenger travel in the United States occurs by automobile for shorter distances and airplane or railroad for longer distances. Most cargo in the U.S. is transported by, in descending order, railroad, truck, pipeline, or boat; air shipping is typically used only for perishables and premium express shipments. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a 3,000-mile (4,800 km) inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following the Gulf Coast to Brownsville, Texas. Some sections of the waterway consist of natural inlets, saltwater rivers, bays, and sounds, while others are artificial canals. It provides a navigable route along its length without many of the hazards of travel on the open sea.
A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over bodies of water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long-distance arteries, which may further be connected to smaller networks of commercial and noncommercial transportation routes. Among notable trade routes was the Amber Road, which served as a dependable network for long-distance trade. Maritime trade along the Spice Route became prominent during the Middle Ages, when nations resorted to military means for control of this influential route. During the Middle Ages, organizations such as the Hanseatic League, aimed at protecting interests of the merchants and trade became increasingly prominent.
A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such as lake or harbour tour boats. As larger water craft, virtually all riverboats are especially designed and constructed, or alternatively, constructed with special-purpose features that optimize them as riverine or lake service craft, for instance, dredgers, survey boats, fisheries management craft, fireboats and law enforcement patrol craft.
Internal improvements is the term used historically in the United States for public works from the end of the American Revolution through much of the 19th century, mainly for the creation of a transportation infrastructure: roads, turnpikes, canals, harbors and navigation improvements. This older term carries the connotation of a political movement that called for the exercise of public spirit as well as the search for immediate economic gain. Improving the country's natural advantages by developments in transportation was, in the eyes of George Washington and many others, a duty incumbent both on governments and on individual citizens.
The Wheeling Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the main channel of the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia. It was the largest suspension bridge in the world from 1849 until 1851. Charles Ellet Jr. designed it and supervised construction of what became the first bridge to span a major river west of the Appalachian mountains. It linked the eastern and western section of the National Road, and became especially strategically important during the American Civil War. Litigation in the United States Supreme Court concerning its obstruction of the new high steamboat smokestacks eventually cleared the way for other bridges, especially needed by expanding railroads. Because this bridge was designed during the horse-and-buggy era, 2-ton weight limits and vehicle separation requirements applied in later years until it was closed to automobile traffic in September 2019.
A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and calm enough for a water vessel to pass safely. Navigability is also referred to in the broader context of a body of water having sufficient under keel clearance for a vessel.
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstate, US and state highways in Michigan with the exception of the Mackinac Bridge. Other responsibilities that fall under MDOT's mandate include airports, shipping and rail in Michigan.
The Industrial Canal is a 5.5 mile (9 km) waterway in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The waterway's proper name, as used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and on NOAA nautical charts, is Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC). The more common "Industrial Canal" name is used locally, both by commercial mariners and by landside residents.
Transportation in the Commonwealth of Virginia is by land, sea and air. Virginia's extensive network of highways and railroads were developed and built over a period almost 400 years, beginning almost immediately after the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and often incorporating old established trails of the Native Americans.
Transportation in Richmond, Virginia and its immediate surroundings include land, sea and air modes. This article includes the independent city and portions of the contiguous counties of Henrico and Chesterfield. While almost all of Henrico County would be considered part of the Richmond area, southern and eastern portions of Chesterfield adjoin the three smaller independent cities of Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights, collectively commonly called the Tri-Cities area. A largely rural section of southwestern Chesterfield may be considered not a portion of either suburban area.
U.S. Route 11 (US 11) runs southwest to northeast across northcentral Alabama for 250.671 miles (403.416 km). It enters the state from Mississippi concurrent with US 80 and exits into Georgia east of Sulphur Springs. US 11 runs through the major cities of Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, as well as the smaller cities and towns of Cuba, York, Livingston, Epes, Boligee, Eutaw, Cottondale, Coaling, Woodstock, Bessemer, Brighton, Midfield, Trussville, Argo, Springville, Ashville, Steele, Attalla, Reece City, and Collinsville. State Route 7 (SR 7) is designated along the entire route but unsigned.
Since 2018, transport occupied a relatively low priority in China's national development. In the twenty-five years that followed the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, China's transportation network was built into a partially modern but somewhat inefficient system. The drive to modernize the transport system, that began in 1978, required a sharp acceleration in investment. Though despite increased investment and development in the 1980s, the transport sector was strained by the rapid expansion of production and the exchange of goods.
The Port of Cleveland is a bulk freight and container shipping port at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the third-largest port in the Great Lakes and the fourth-largest Great Lakes port by annual tonnage. Over 20,000 jobs and $3.5 billion in annual economic activity are tied to the roughly 13 million tons of cargo that move through Cleveland Harbor each year.
The Port of Pittsburgh is a vast river traffic region in southwestern Pennsylvania. It spans a twelve-county area including Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Blair, Butler, Clarion, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland Counties.
The Ministry of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology is the government ministry of Austria in charge of traffic, research, innovation, energy, and environmental protection.
On November 8, 2016, Illinois voters approved the Illinois Transportation Taxes and Fees Lockbox Amendment, a legislatively referred constitutional amendment that prohibits lawmakers from using transportation funds for anything other than their stated purpose.
Transportation in the United States is governed by laws and regulations of the federal government. The Department of Transportation is responsible for carrying out federal transportation policy, and the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for security in transportation.