Ancient travel

For anyone that went thought the public-school system like me here in Canada, you likely learned a small amount about the early movements of people as we understand it.

There are no known surviving written records from this time. What we do know is that when Pangea was still the only continent on this planet, migration was common. This is based on shared genetic data that has been gathered from different areas.

After the break up of the supercontinent people were still on the move. Many left what we now know of as Africa, moving up to Europe, to North and South America through the Bering straight, down to South America. Some split off towards Asia while others became seafaring and travelled from island to island for centuries.

We know Europe and Asia had a similar climate and are attached, so the east-west migration helped technology to spread in a way that it did not in the Americas. The first people in the Americas seem to have arrived anywhere from 20 to 40,000 years ago.

We also know that somewhere in this ancient period, people started using carts and animals for transporting goods and people.

Antiquity Travel in Antiquity

Since I couldn’t find a ton of information on the ancient ways of travelling, but a ton about Greeks and Romans, I’ll move on to them.

The Romans were prolific at building roads and expanding their empire. Many of the roads were rarely repaired as they were so well built and mapped out. The empire at its height would grow to 85,000 kilometres (53,000 miles) and would reach from the southern tip of the Egyptian banks all the way up to what is now Britain’s north.

Even though there were advances in many forms of technology, the level of comfort even for the wealthiest of travellers was minimal to put it kindly. The carriages and wagons had absolutely no suspension, so the passengers felt every single bump in the road, they were also loud because of the iron wheels, how loud? Loud enough that Rome banned them during the day as well as to ease congestion. They also travelled very slowly, and many had no top so the sun would beat down on you throughout the journey. The speed that they travelled at would be considered excruciatingly slow by our standards. Most would be able to travel maybe 30 Kilometers or so a day by land. Meaning if you wanted to get from, Rome to Naples it would take around 6 days. Rome to Londinium (What we now call London), would take about a month, trips that we can now do in hours by plane, or less than a day by car if you were to drive.

The roads themselves were incredibly well made even being curved, allowing water to run into ditches on each side, so there were no puddles. These roads were one of the keys to the expansion of the empire, allowing quick transit for all kinds of travellers, including the military. Many of the roads even had tolls like our modern highways, which went to the government to build and maintain roads like we do now.

On the road, there were often Inns at specified intervals. Many were wary of staying because the owners were less than honest, many were frequented by criminals, drunks, prostitutes and were infested with fleas and lice.

The use of ships to transport goods and people also expanded during this time thanks in large part to the vast size of the Roman Empire. It also shortened many travel times as it was generally safe to sail because whole portions of both land and water were watched by the military, meaning they were protected from Pirates.

They also built dozens of ports most of which still stand today and have served the communities for centuries and were the reason that Romans were able to make regular trips to far off lands like India, China as well as the northern reaches like Britain.

Just a side note for anyone who may be in school or is a little nerdy about history like I am, I found this cool tool that allows you to see how long journeys around the roman empire would take. http://orbis.stanford.edu/ /// https://brilliantmaps.com/travel-time-rome/

Travel in the Industrial Age

This most recent addition to how we travel is probably something you’ve read about in history books and have almost certainly seen or even used yourselves.

When the industrial revolution first hit in 1760, we had to adapt how we transport both people and goods.

Although they had been in use for mines since the 1500s, railways began to take over the transportation of goods and people starting around 1804 when the first steam train was invented in England. By 1830, it could reach up to around 112 Km/h (or 70 Miles/h) which was much faster than people could travel previously. It was very successful, as it was used until the 1940s when it was replaced by diesel and electric options that were less expensive and easier to operate.

I won’t go into this one too much because I covered it extensively in my history of tourism post, but when cars started to be mass-produced, things changed again. Road trips took off around 1920 when cars became accessible to a broader number of people, and people had more time off. Cars allowed people to get further than a horse would and in less time.

This era also gave us terrible disasters, like that of the Hindenburg. A hydrogen-filled blimp that killed 35 people in 1937, when an electric spark, ignited leaking Hydrogen gas as its landing lines were being dropped in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

What we don’t talk about as much is what that loss meant, these Zeppelin’s had the first flight attendants, they flew for over 30 years over more than 2,000 flights without so much as an injury. It was the fastest and way to cross the Atlantic, and it was quite luxurious, based on the photos available.

Airplanes took over for what the Zeppelin’s were used for, and the first transatlantic flights started in 1936, taking off in popularity slowly. The journey was also much more comfortable by this point, having heating, padded seats, the cabin was also soundproofed and pressurized in 1938. This is also the time that people point to when they talk about how much more comfortable flying was. The seats were wide, they had a ton of legroom, all the free booze you could drink. By 1946 there were regular flights from New York and London and air travel, while still expensive was more commonly accepted than boats or even trains in some cases.

Sadly, for all of us, the successor to the airplane was at least in my opinion, far too short-lived. The Concorde was an incredible advancement, which only lasted 27 years.

The Concorde was able to travel from London to New York City in 3 and a half hours. The problem for most was not that there had been a crash, yes, one singular accident that killed 109 passengers and four people on the ground.

The aircraft suffered engine failure after debris from another plane that was not removed from the runway (which was supposed to be cleaned) caused one of the left tires to burst. This, in turn, caused the fuel tank to rupture, and it went up in flames just two minutes after takeoff.

The problem was a roundtrip flight on the Super Sonic Jet was over 8,000‎£ per person. As great as it was and as great as it would be, they priced themselves out of the market.

The Concorde was supposed to be the future, but at this point, it doesn’t seem like it will make a come back anytime soon.

The future of travel

So now that we’ve covered everything up until the present day, what could the future hold? Well, we’re not always great at predicting, I mean “The Jetsons” told us we would have flying cars, I have not seen one.

While most of us probably don’t find any of the ancient ways of travel exciting or even revolutionary. Though many would agree that the idea of travelling between cities or even leaving the atmosphere to get from point A to B is fascinating, if not a little terrifying. That’s something Elon Musk talked about with the BFR (Big Fucking Rocket). Some say it’s not feasible and could kill passengers due to factors like the G Force or the radiation people could be exposed to.

Here’s a rundown of a few other things we can look forward to in coming years in regards to travel.

Virgin Galactic will bring you to the edge of space for the bargain price of 250,000USD. If you’re looking for something else, a few people have been tourists to the ISS for the reasonable rate of 20 Million Dollars.

If those seem like something too many everyday folks would do for you, try contacting SpaceX and see if you can be the second-round moon tourists. The first will be Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese retail magnate who will reportedly visit in 2023. SpaceX is also planning to be able to send people to Mars as well, but there is no date set as I write this.

If you’re a mere mortal like me, you’re probably keeping an eye on something we’re more likely to have access to. Take the Hyperloop, for example. Both Tesla/SpaceX and Virgin have a Hyperloop in the works, with Virgin calling theirs Hyperloop one. The idea is to transport people and goods at over 1000km/h, making a trip from Los Angeles to Vegas that currently takes around 3 hours, less than 30 minutes. Or even New York to L.A., which presently takes nearly 8 hours, would be down to 4.5 hours.

Some mock-ups I’ve seen have vehicles roll in, and others have seats that you climb into so there seem to be a few options being explored.

While there are so many projects going on that may forever change how we travel, many are not public knowledge until they are closer to implementation. The future of travel is a mix between incredible advancements and a few curious suggestions. Think bike seats on planes. The same could be said about most areas of our lives.