Getting around long ago
History · Early Years · The School
Before cars
Long ago, there were no cars. People walked a lot. Rich people rode a horse. Some rode in a cart, pulled by a horse. A cart bumped along on wooden wheels. There were no smooth tyres yet. A trip that takes minutes today could take hours back then.
Boats and trains
Boats are very old. People used them long before cars. Sailors could cross whole oceans in a boat. Trains came later than boats. A steam train puffs out smoke. It runs on metal tracks, called a railway. It was once the fastest way to travel on land.
What changed
Cars came after trains. Planes came even later. Each new way of travelling was faster than the last. But horses, boats and trains did not vanish. Some are still used today. A car can go down a small street. A train can only go where tracks are laid. Each kind of transport is good at a different job.
Imagine a girl called Mo. She has three picture cards. One shows a car. One shows a steam train. One shows a horse and cart. Mo must put them in time order, oldest first. A cart is thousands of years old. So the cart goes first. A steam train is about 200 years old. So the train goes second. Cars like ours came after steam trains. So the car goes last. Mo's cards now read cart, train, car.