Before cars, people used horses and buggies to get around and clung to coastal settlements to use the waterways for trade. There were not many roads in America at the time, and the roads were usually in poor condition. These 25 amazing vintage photographs show what Americans used to use for transportation before cars were invented?

1905: The Jersey Shore

1903: One Horsepower New Orleans Milk Cart

 

1904: US Treasury Currency Wagon, Washington

 

1899: Farm Yard Scene, Germantown

 

1898: Ferry on the Ocklawaha River, Florida

 

1898: Ferry on the Ocklawaha River, Florida

 

1902: Cotton Cart, Mobile, Alabama

 

1862: Allan Pinkerton, a feared and famous member of the Secret Service in Antietam, Maryland

 

1908: Eviction in New York

 

1904: Baltimore

 

1904: Palm Beach Florida Trolley

 

1893: Two Horsepower Prime Mover, Ewen, Michigan

 

1865: Federal troops at Confederate winter quarters near Yorktown, Virginia

 

1899: Virginia Vegetable Cart

 

1902: The close of a career

 

1905: Dock Street, Philadelphia

 

1864: General William T. Sherman, near Atlanta, GA

 

1904: Broad Street lunch carts, New York

 

1902: Tobacco warehouse, Louisville

 

1898: An Assinaboine Indian, on guard on the outskirts of camp

 

1864: Fortified railroad bridge across the Cumberland River at Nashville

 

1898: Gathering Sisal, Nassau, Bahama

 

1905: Norfolk, Virginia

 

1899: Ocean Springs, Mississippi

 

1897: Basking Ridge, New Jersey