Editing Unification of Germany (section)

==== Roads and railways ====
By the early 19th century, German roads had deteriorated to an appalling extent. Travelers, both foreign and local, complained bitterly about the state of the ''Heerstraßen'', the military roads previously maintained for easy troop movement. As German states ceased to be a military crossroads, however, the roads improved; the length of hard–surfaced roads in Prussia increased from {{convert|3800|km|mi|sp=us}} in 1816 to {{convert|16600|km|mi|sp=us}} in 1852, helped in part by the invention of [[macadam]]. By 1835, [[Heinrich von Gagern]] wrote that roads were the "veins and arteries of the body politic..." and predicted that they would promote freedom, independence and prosperity.{{Sfn|Sheehan|1989|p=465}}As people moved around, they came into contact with others, on trains, at hotels, in restaurants, and for some, at fashionable resorts such as the spa in [[Kurhaus (Baden-Baden)|Baden-Baden]]. Water transportation also improved. The blockades on the Rhine had been removed by Napoleon's orders, but by the 1820s, steam engines freed riverboats from the cumbersome system of men and animals that towed them upstream. By 1846, 180 steamers plied German rivers and [[Lake Constance]], and a network of canals extended from the [[Danube]], the [[Weser]], and the [[Elbe]] rivers.{{Sfn|Sheehan|1989|p=466}}

As important as these improvements were, they could paled in comparison to the impact of the railway. German economist [[Friedrich List]] called the railways and the Customs Union "Siamese Twins", emphasizing their important mutually beneficial relationship.{{Sfn|Sheehan|1989|pp=467–468}} He was not alone: the poet [[August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben]] wrote a poem in which he extolled the virtues of the ''Zollverein'', which he began with a list of commodities that had contributed more to German unity than politics or diplomacy.{{Sfn|Sheehan|1989|p=502}} Historians of the [[German Empire]] later regarded the railways as the first indicator of a unified state; the patriotic novelist, [[Wilhelm Raabe]], wrote: "The German empire was founded with the construction of the first railway..."{{Sfn|Sheehan|1989|p=469}} Not everyone greeted the ''iron monster'' with enthusiasm. The Prussian king [[Frederick William III]] saw no advantage in traveling from Berlin to [[Potsdam]] a few hours faster, and Metternich refused to ride it at all. Others wondered if the railways were an "evil" that threatened the landscape: [[Nikolaus Lenau]]'s 1838 poem ''An den Frühling'' (''To Spring'') bemoaned the way trains destroyed the pristine quietude of German forests.{{Sfn|Sheehan|1989|p=458}}

The [[Bavarian Ludwig Railway]], which was the first passenger or freight rail line in the German lands, connected [[Nuremberg]] and [[Fürth]] in 1835. Although it was {{convert|6|km|mi|sp=us}} long and only operated in daylight, it proved both profitable and popular. Within three years, {{convert|141|km|mi|sp=us}} of track had been laid, by 1840, {{convert|462|km|mi|sp=us}}, and by 1860, {{convert|11157|km|mi|sp=us}}. Lacking a geographically central organizing feature (such as a national capital), the rails were laid in webs, linking towns and markets within regions, regions within larger regions, and so on. As the rail network expanded, it became cheaper to transport goods: in 1840, 18 ''[[Pfennig]]s'' per ton per kilometer and in 1870, five ''Pfennigs''. The effects of the railway were immediate. For example, raw materials could travel up and down the [[Ruhr]] Valley without having to unload and reload. Railway lines stumulated economic activity by creating demand for commodities and by facilitating commerce. In 1850, inland shipping carried three times more freight than railroads; by 1870, the situation was reversed, and railroads carried four times more. Rail travel changed how cities looked and how people traveled. Its impact reached throughout the social order, affecting the highest born to the lowest. Although some of the outlying German provinces were not serviced by rail until the 1890s, the majority of the population, manufacturing centers, and production centers were linked to the rail network by 1865.{{Sfn|Sheehan|1989|pp=466–467}}