Indiana and its neighboring states of Ohio and Illinois were the center of the interurban industry in the United States from the turn of the twentieth century to the Great Depression. An extensive network of dozens of interurban lines covered the Midwest, moving people and goods between towns and cities. The impact of these lines went far beyond their day-to-day operations, fundamentally affecting the social and economic development of the states through which they ran. Many rural areas first received electric power because of the interurbans. Travel was revolutionized, and the interurbans led in the development of the twentieth-century tourism industry. Jobs were created in constructing cars and laying thousands of miles of tracks, as well as in operating the finished lines. In addition to transporting people, interurbans also engaged in short hauling of a wide variety of commodities.