We sometimes take for granted that a letter or a package may take a few days to reach us when the technology of communication promotes high speed in the delivery of todays information. Of course our standard of sending and recieving information wasn't always so fast.
In 1848, a letter sent from New York to California took roughly between three to six weeks to arrive using a combination of railways and steamships to accomplish what would seem to us today, to be a simple task. The problem was that there was no direct route at the time, primarily because the land beyond St. Joseph, Missouri was unknown and wild.
Then in 1860, a nam named William Russell started his own express route in spite of not being approved by the Senate Post Office and Post Roads Committee. He and his two business parters called it the "Pony Express." They built relay stations through eight states from Missoui to California and hired yound boys with great riding skills, mainly orphans, to make the dangerous rides.
The quickest delivery was of President Lincoln's inaugural address in March 1861 and took seven days and 17 hours to deliver. The Pony Express operated for only three months until the telegraph lines spanning coast to coast were completed and the rest is history.
The perfect example of technology overlapping in time. This is happening now with dial up and broadband and fiber optics. Before we can perfect one tech another appears. The pony express is a part of history because a better way was found and it became obsolete, just like all the techs we have today.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how far advanced we are with the expediting of shipping things. Considering we can receive things overnight, we are really fortune to live in modern times and benefit from early developments like the pony express.
ReplyDeleteI still send hand written letters to a friend of mine that lives in Mexico...it takes almost 20 days for him to get his mail. It's crazy how long it takes to just send a simple little letter. The computer and the internet made that much quicker that's for sure. Although I don't mind sending a hand written letter sometimes.
ReplyDeleteIts ashame that such an awesome business had started and failed so fast due to the rapid increase of ideas and innovations at the time. It just became a small idea that was out done in a matter of 3 months by tetegraphs? Well at elast it did its job and 7 days is alot betetr than 6 weeks but today i hope i get my clothes i bought off ebay from california in way less than 7 days.
ReplyDeleteIn essence, the pony express really just set the trend for the mail carrier systems we have today such as UPS
William Russell is a true entrepreneurial. I never heard about the pony express untill now but it seemed pretty efficent for its time. Just to think, information must have been so delayed when sending it long distance. Thank God for the invention of email or else it would be really frustrating sending mail.
ReplyDeleteWhen sending mail, it seems as though it takes a while to reach people that live far away. Imagine what it was like during the time of the Pony express. I would go insane waiting for my mail.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the pony express has lived on by companies like the United States Postal Service, Fed-Ex, and UPS. Although you can receive e-mails instantly, there is nothing like getting the real thing. I still send letters and pay my bills by mail and have no problem.
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