It is difficult to imagine a world without transport. Today we take quick, easy transportation for granted. Every day, people catch buses and trains, drive cars, go on cruises...it is even possible to catch a plane and be halfway around the world in half a day. Humans have even travelled out-side the Earth's atmosphere, such as to the Moon.

But transportation has not always been so easy. In the past, travel was difficult and unsafe, and most people never went more than a few kilometres from their homes. Gradually, though, a number of innovations made travel more straightforward.

The process began around 6,000 years ago in the Middle East, with the invention of the wheel. Later, the Persian and Roman Empires built the first good roads to link major cities. Meanwhile, the shipwrights of the great Egyptian civilization had made their own contribution to travel, building the first sailing ships and inventing the rudder with which to steer them.
The Industrial Revolution that swept across Britain, Europe and America in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the development of the steam engine and the start of the railroad.

But a host of new ideas have transformed transportation even further in the last 100 years. Many of these were linked to the invention of the internal combustion engine, which made both cars and aircraft possible, as well as boosted the technology of ships and liners. This powerful, lightweight unit was responsible for taking people even into outer space, with the advent of jet engines and rockets.

This website tells the fascinating account of all the main developments of air, land and sea transportation in the 20th century. It shows us how the world, which seemed vast and mysterious to our ancestors, now appears to have shrunk: because thanks to these brilliant inventions, it is so easy to travel around today.

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