The Changing Face of Transportation Humans have always been searching for quicker and easier ways to get around . About 10, 000 years ago , we built canoes made from logs of wood , while on land we domesticated and started riding horses around 4, 000 BC . Roughly 500 years later , we invented the wheel , which led to carts and wagons , and at almost the same time , the Egyptians invented the sailing boat . Up until the 18th century most people travelled by sailing boat , horse or stagecoach , but in 1769 , there was a major breakthrough when the Scottish inventor James Watt invented the steam engine . In 1783 , the French inventor Claude de Jouffroy used this technology to build the first steamboat , and in 1804 the Englishman Richard Trevithick constructed the first steam - powered train . Railways helped carry coal around Britain and were an important part of the Industrial Revolution . Another major breakthrough came when Kari Benz built the first working car in 1885. Then , in 1903. Orville and Wilbur Wright built the first aeroplane . These two inventions shaped the 20th century . Over time , cars and plane travel became cheaper so that by the 70s a lot of families owned a car and many were holldaying abroad . Also , the 20th century saw the first man in space - Yuri Gagarin in 1961 - and the world was watching when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969 . Nowadays , companies are developing self - driving cars and we will soon be able to take trips into space . The fascinating story of transportation continues and who knows how we'll be getting around in the future . 1The first means of transportpeople built were2 The invention of the wheelallowed us to make3 The Industrial Revolutionrelied on the invention of4 Throughout the 20th centurytravel by car and plane5 in the future, people will beable to travel​​