Sandwiched between two of the country's largest inland water systems, Lake Erie and the Ohio River, Ohio has long been a leader in water transport. With its numerous terminals on the Ohio River and deepwater ports on Lake Erie, Ohio ranks as one of the major US states for shipping.
The building of railroads in the mid-19th century greatly improved transportation within the state by connecting inland counties with Lake Erie and the Ohio River. The Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad, between Dayton and Sandusky, was completed in 1844, and two years later, it was joined with the Little Miami Railroad, to provide through service to Cincinnati. Also in 1846, Cleveland was connected by rail with Columbus and Pittsburgh. Railroad building in the state reached a peak in the 1850s; at the outbreak of the Civil War, Ohio had more miles of track than any other state. By 1900, railroads were by far the most important system of transport.
In 2000, Class I railroads operated 4,526 rail mi (7,283 km) of track in the state; 6,494 mi (10,451 km) of track was in service, utilized by 33 railroads, including 3 Class I railroads. Freight service on branch lines to counties has been maintained through a state subsidy program.
Mass transit in Ohio's cities began in 1859 with horse-drawn carriages carrying paying passengers in Cleveland and Cincinnati, which added a cable car on rails about 1880. The electric trolley car, introduced to Cleveland in 1884, soon became the most popular mass transit system for the large cities. Inter-urban electric railways carried passengers to and from rural towns that had been bypassed by the railroads; there were 2,809 mi (4,521 km) of interurban track in the state by 1907. The use of electric railways declined with the development of the motor car in the 1920s, and by 1939, for example, the seven interurban lines serving Columbus had been abandoned. Today, suburbanites commute to their workplaces in Columbus and other cities by automobile and bus lines. In the mid-1990s, Amtrak operated four regularly scheduled trains through Ohio on 631 mi (1,016 km) of track.
Rough roads were used by settlers in the early 19th century. The National Road was built from Wheeling, West Virginia, to Zanesville in 1826, and was extended to Columbus by 1833. The increasing use of the automobile in the 1930s led to massive state and federal road-building programs in Ohio as elsewhere. The major interstate highways across Ohio connect Cleveland and the Toledo area in the north (I-80, I-90); link Columbus with Dayton, Zanesville, and Wheeling (I-70) and with Cincinnati and Cleveland (I-71); and extend north–south from Cleveland and Akron to Marietta in the east (I-77), and from Toledo to Dayton and Cincinnati in the west (I-75).
In 2000, Ohio had 116,964 mi (188,235 km) of roads: 83,419 mi (134,249 km) rural and 33,545 mi (53,985 km) urban. Also in 2000, 6,709,706 automobiles, 3,720,187 trucks, 254,666 motorcycles, and 37,583 buses were registered in the state; there were 8,205,524 licensed drivers.
Inland waterways have long been important for transport and commerce in Ohio. The first settlers traveled into Ohio by flatboat down the Ohio River to establish such towns as Marietta and Cincinnati. Lake Erie schooners brought the founders of Cleveland and Sandusky. Steamboat service began on the Ohio River in 1811, and at Lake Erie ports in 1818. The public demand for water transportation in the interior of the state, where few rivers were navigable, led to construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal from Cincinnati to Dayton; both were opened to traffic in 1827 but not completed for another 14 years. The canals gave Ohio's farmers better access to eastern and southern markets. Water transportation is still a principal means of shipping Ohio's products through the St. Lawrence Seaway to foreign countries, and the method by which millions of tons of cargo, particularly coal, are moved via the Ohio River to domestic markets.
Ohio's ports rank among the busiest of the 50 states in volume. In 2000, the state's most active ports were Cleveland, with 14.4 million tons of cargo handled; Cincinnati, 14.3 million tons; Lorain, 14.2 million tons; and Toledo, 13.3 million tons.
Ohioans consider Dayton to be the birthplace of aviation because it was there that Wilbur and Orville Wright built the first motor-powered airplane in 1903. In 2002, there were 526 airports in the state. The major air terminals are the Greater Cincinnati airport (actually located across the Ohio River in Kentucky) and Hopkins International in Cleveland.