ABSTRACT
Throughout the history of the United States transportation has been an important factor in the concentration of population and employment. Transportation is a factor in the formation of settlements and change of urban form. During the colonial era, small ports on the East Coast served as gateways to the unsettled interior. Later, some of them became large urban centers. Baltimore expanded in this way from its port, and St. Louis later developed around its break bulk and gateway location on the Mississippi River. Atlanta fl ourished at the crossing of railroads. Transportation then became instrumental in the deconcentration of cities. Streetcar suburbs sprang up at the termini of streetcar lines laid at the end of the nineteenth century. The recently formed power and light companies owned streetcar companies and land on the urban fringe. They expanded the streetcar lines outward, developing the land as they went. Suburban development in turn created greater demand for electricity.
