"Developments in transportation, rather than manufacturing and agriculture, sparked economic growth in the first half of the 19th century." Assess the validity of the statement. In the first half of the 19th century, there was a increase in both manufacturing and commercial interests. It was a time for the growth of large cites such as New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Boston. The growth of these cities signaled a rise in the economic growth of the nation as a whole. The rate of urban growth was extraordinary. New York grew from 60,000 in 1800 and to more than 1 million in 1860, becoming the nation's financial center. Between 1820 and 1830, the decade in which the Erie Canal was opened, commerce with the American interior added to the city's longstanding role in international trade. This caused an increase in transportation developments. Baltimore's merchants hoping to counter the threat posed by the Erie Canal to their links with the Appalachian West, financed the nation's first important railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio, which began operation in 1830. Baltimore became the center for east coast tobacco trade with Europe. Later its major partner in trade was Brazil to which flour was shipped and coffee exported. Boston merchants carried New England manufactured goods to the South and delivered southern cotton to Britain and the rest of Europe, as well as China. The market revolution shifted attention away from foreign trade and towards trade with the nation's interior. Soon cities appeared along critical points in trade routes, creating large manufacturing and commercial centers. The population of cities increased as they became larger economic centers. This was due to the increase in job availability and growth of transportation routes. Many immigrants arrived in large cities and took jobs available along these routes. Chicago became a major junction due to the arrival of the railroad and the city's location on the shores of Lak...
