|
|
|
|
|
An Explosion of Mail
In the 1880s and 1890s,
immigrants streamed to the cities in unprecedented numbers, often
leaving their families and friends thousands of miles behind. Their
only link with their past was to write. In 1889 alone, over 87
millions letters and cards were exchanged between Europe and the
United States, twenty-two times as much correspondence as flowed
between the two continents in the years prior to the Civil War.
Letters joined these immigrants first to their lands of origin and
later to their children and grandchildren as these generations, in
turn, moved on to other parts of this country.
|
|
|
|
|
City Free Delivery
Free mail delivery was
not available before 1863. Many large post offices had letter
carriers, but they weren't paid by the government. They earned their
wages by charging recipients one or two cents for each delivered
letter. Most people saved their money and picked up their own mail.
|
|
|
|
|
Overcoming Congestion
Urban intersections were
free-for-alls at the end of the 1800s. Traffic signals had not been
invented, and reckless drivers seized the right of way. By 1900, 3
million horses, pulling an assortment of wagons and trolleys, choked
U.S. city streets. The postal service moved to solve two growing
concerns, transporting an increasing volume of mail into and through
the cities and then delivering that mail to the addressee.
|
|
|
|
|
Street Corner Mailboxes
By the mid-1800s
adhesive postage stamps were widely used, and the Post Office
Department recognized that people no longer needed to go to the post
office to deposit their letters. Instead, they could keep stamps at
home and mail letters at their leisure. So the department began to
build and distribute mailboxes throughout U.S. cities.
|
|
|
|
|
|
