TEXT:because it really symbolizes what happen ed to the Native Americans. The West is open for business, but key to the transformation of the region is a river2,000 miles in length, fed by rainfall from 31 states. Running from Minnesota to New Orleans, the Mighty Mississippi. It's a lifeline connecting the West to the outside world. If roads exist, they're muddy tracks. This is the only trade artery, the interstate, that allows the pioneers and settlers to sell the produce they've sweated over.

A huge amount of goods are shipped out, but they're shipped out in the most nickel-and -dime way. A farmer will build a flatboat, fill it up with hogs, sassafras root, ginseng root, tobacco whatever it is you grow-- put it on the flatboat, use the power of the Mississippi to drift you down to sell them along the r iverbank. Aged 19, Abraham Lincoln makes his first trip down the Mississippi, poling his simple raft. The current is too strong to return upstream. The primitive flatboats are simply sold as lumber in New Orleans. Farmers have to walk the 800 miles home and begin again. But on that first journey, Lincoln sees the future. A new invention which will transform the Mississippi, the Midwest, and America.

The steamboat was the 19th century's time machine, just as surely as the airplane was the 20th century's time machine. It shrunk distance. By shrinking distance, it enabled commerce. Even upstream, steamboats can travel 50 miles a day, eight times faster, eight times the cargo of a raft. But they're deadly. Over half the early models explode, maiming and killing hundreds. But their number triples every decade. They make the Midwest America's economic powerhouse. Within 20 years, St. Louis alone swells from a few hundred to a population of 16,000. Over four generations, America has grown from a 100 -mile-wide strip of colonies on the Eastern Seaboard to a continental powerhouse.
譯文:它確實象征了美國印第安人的命運(yùn)。西部具備了通商的條件，但整個區(qū)域發(fā)展的關(guān)鍵是一條長兩千英里的河流，它匯聚了來自31個州的降水。北起明尼蘇達(dá)，南至新奧爾良，氣勢雄渾的密西西比河。這是條連接西部與外面世界的生命線，就算有陸路也必然是泥濘的小道。這是條唯一的跨州貿(mào)易大動脈，拓荒西部的先驅(qū)者和移民們通過它，打開他們用汗水澆灌的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品的銷路。

理查德·斯洛特金[衛(wèi)斯理大學(xué)英語教授和美國研究主任]：“數(shù)量巨大的貨物由水路運(yùn)出，但每次的運(yùn)量卻少得可憐。農(nóng)夫一般會造一艘平底船，上面載滿豬肉、黃樟根、人參和煙草，不管種的是什么，全都裝上船，借用密西西比河水的強(qiáng)大力量，順流而下沿岸尋找買主。”19歲的亞伯拉罕·林肯生平第一次踏上順密西西比河而下的旅程，方式是撐著一只簡易的木筏。水流太急很難逆流而返，原始的平底船只能在新奧爾良當(dāng)作木材售出。農(nóng)夫們必須徒步800英里走回家，然后再度踏上相同的旅程。但就在這第一次航行中，林肯看到了未來，一項足以改變整個密西西比中西部乃至全美國的發(fā)明。

小亨利·路易斯·蓋茨[哈佛大學(xué)非洲和非裔美國人研究所所長]：“蒸汽船好比十九世紀(jì)的時間機(jī)器，正如飛機(jī)是二十世紀(jì)當(dāng)之無愧的時間機(jī)器一樣。它縮短了距離，距離縮短了，通商便成為可能?！奔幢闶悄媪骱叫校羝惶旌匠桃部蛇_(dá)50英里，八倍于木筏的速度與載貨量。但它們非常不安全，早期蒸汽船半數(shù)會毀于爆炸，致殘致死數(shù)百人。但它們?nèi)砸悦渴攴兜乃俣冗f增，它們使中西部成為美國經(jīng)濟(jì)的發(fā)電站。20年內(nèi)，僅圣路易斯一座城市的人口就從幾百人發(fā)展到1萬6千人，經(jīng)過四代人的努力美國從東岸100英里寬的殖民地地帶一躍成為橫跨整個大陸的經(jīng)濟(jì)強(qiáng)國。