[Nifty3929]

Don't forget the Jones Act (1920), which was originally designed to protect domestic shipping, which it immediately killed, and which now serves to protect domestic trucking.

So if you want to transport something from Northern California to Southern, you MUST truck it, even if you could afford to wait a few weeks. It's incredibly bad for the environment, and much less efficient.

[jordanb]

The American merchant marine was bigger than it ever was in the decades following the passage of that act. 1940s was the era of the liberty ships!

The Jones act was passed in 1920 because the merchant marine had been withering away in the decades leading up to WWI. WWI was an "oh shit" moment for the US when it realized that if it had been more directly involved in the shooting war it wouldn't have any ships to fight in it.

Arguably it worked as intended because the American flag fleet was large and modern by 1942 when the US found itself in a shooting war across two oceans.

[dylan604]

Is there something preventing shipping by rail rather than truck?