My great-grandmother was the postmaster of a small town in Iowa (population 75). Her kitchen table was the town's post office. Nearly everyone in that town was family and friends, so they stopped by her house for cup of coffee and to pick up their mail. 😃
I remember when Zip codes were first instituted. I also remember when they switched to abbreviating state names with just two letters. God, I feel old!
I remember having letters returned because I used the two letter state abbreviation without the zip code and old abbreviation with a zip code. It was a tough learning curve!
When I was a kid in the 1970s, I used the longer abbreviation for states, but that was because my parents and grandparents used the longer abbreviations. It wasn’t until the late 70s and early 80s that I started using the two letter abbreviations.
@@HVACSoldier Same here - born in '70, I remember going through school and my parents using the longer names, too. It may have been so that it didn't look like another state abbreviation, or because that's how they had always done it; that I'm not sure of, but I do remember being taught how to address an envelope properly in school, and writing letters to family members. While I'm grateful for the instant communication that texting and the like brings, I also will say I miss those days. :)
The General Electric plant in Schenectady NY has it's own zip code of 12345. Due to the large volume of children who would write to Santa and have no idea of the zip code of the north pole, 12345 was used quite a bit. From what I've been told some of the workers would take time to write the kids back.
My father was a longtime USPS employee. He started in 1949 as a sorter, throwing letters into a wall of bins. To help with the sorting, he became interested in memory tricks. If you give home a name, he could tell you what page it was on in the Chicago telephone book. He worked many years behind the counter in Chicago post offices. Before he retired in the 1980s, he supervised a large crew operating sorting machines at the Chicago main post office over the Eisenhower Expressway.
I live in a good-sized suburban Chicago town (population over 17,000) , and I walk a lot. I wave at the various mail carriers if they happen to be looking my way. One day, as I was walking, I passed a mailman - not the one who delivers to my house - and we chatted for a few minutes. He asked me my name and immediately knew my address. It seems that 10 years earlier he had the job of sorting the mail for the route that includes my house and remembered all the names and addresses!
My mom was just buried today at 71 years old. She worked in the Morgan and Farley Post office in New York City. She loved the post office for 25 years. This video really hits home. Thank you for all your work.
Thanks THG for another well addressed piece of history. I'd all but forgotten "Mr Zip" but now remember how it was plastered seemingly everywhere back then.
Sorting is always taken for granted, and I love that it's so standardized, but honestly, we ought to remember how these things happened. That's why I love The History Guy, because he does remember.
I think we could all relate to people being sick of phone numbers and zip codes the same way we're sick of having to remember all these random complicated passwords
The weird thing is that we rarely bother memorizing phone numbers anymore because we store them all on our phones. If you are ever in an emergency where you've lost your phone, it's good to remember at least one friend or family member's phone number so you can dial them up from a desk phone quickly.
@@jozef_chocholacek yes, the convenience of being able to lose all your passwords at once is a no-brainer! Lol. How about I also carry my life savings in my wallet, along with my car title, my house deed, my 401K and my safety deposit box key? Nothing like keeping all my valuables in one place to make it convenient for the thieves/hackers.
I also can't recommend a password manager enough in that case. they allow you to login much faster and also allow you to have better/more complex passwords which increases your accounts safety significantly
Now some people fight over zip codes... I've seen cases where a newly developed area wants to be includes in the zip code of a certain wealthy, fashionable neighborhood even though they are closer to a less wealthy neighborhood.
People also attempted to obtain desirable area codes, for example businesses wanted 212 area codes because that's the area code associated with New York City (Manhattan). Today with cell phones being nearly universal, the area code is largely becoming meaningless, since a person can have a 'New York City' area code but actually be living or working someplace else.
What a sad commentary on the pointlessness of "status" since, in the end, we're all buried in the same ground. (or have our ashes spread over it) Must suck to define your life by standards like that. (yours in general, not yours in particular)
As a high school exchange student to Germany in 1968, I actually needed to start writing letters and became aware of the US ZIP Code system. I experimented sending letters home using my family's name, PO Box, ZIP Code, followed by USA. The letters always got there in normal time.
If it has an address (PO box) and a zip code, or a city and state, it'll get there. In some small towns, you can expect ones without an address but with a name will arrive too
When I lived in the US in the late '90s and early '00s, I once received a package via USPS where the street and city names were misspelled, and the street type and even state abbreviation were wrong -- but the street number and ZIP code were correct, so it was still delivered to me.
I did that too. There was a newsstand in the post office. It was run by a blind man. I think alot of these stands were operated by the blind. After the first moon landing, I went to the post office. Bought a copy of the Chicago Tribune newspaper, from that guy. The paper had special section on the lunar landing.That was at the post office in Grand Island Ne. I registered for the draft at the post office. Took off a couple of hours from high school to do it. I probably could have done it in a hour. But l really milked it out
The towns of Sudbury and Concord Massachusetts had a battle over who would get the 01776 zip thought you would like this tid bit Love your show’s Thanks David
Learned the importance of plus four the hard way when I moved to New England in the early 2000's. Neighboring town shared our Zip code and had an identical address. Fun explaining to the utilities that we had not received our bill since it had been delivered to the next town over.
@@samanthab1923 Just look at your junk mail. ZIP+4 will be present on any CR-RT Sort items. That is, bulk mail is sent out pre-sorted for a discount to the postage. Any computer-printed label will also fill it in.
Neighboring towns? Try neighboring almost identical street names! In my neighborhood, there is a "Somestreet *Ct* ", and a "Somestreet *Way* " (street name changed to protect the guilty). There is also a house on each with the same number. So, we get each other's mail from time to time. Usually when the primary carrier has a day off...
I think in a few old post offices we can still see Mr. Zip either painted on the wall or a wooded painted image of him on a stand. I never knew the history of Mr. Zip. I was born in 1965 and as a kid just did what I was told to do. I put a zip code on my letters.🤷🏻♂️
I made a good part of my living in pre-sorting mailing lists here in Canada. I wrote software to do this, printing companies with attached mail-assembly lettershops would print and prepare the mailings for delivery to the post office. In Canada, we have our unique system of the Postal Code, using a 6-character alphanumeric code in the form of ANA NAN, or, letter, digit, letter, digit, letter, digit. This makes the code very easy to identify in a string of address characters. In Canada, the people who developed the code had the benefit of seeing what did and did not work with both the US and British systems. Even at that, though, they did not foresee the migration of people to the West Coast, where they are now running out of postal codes, of the creation of Nunavut, which shares the “X” prefix of the rest of the Northwest Territories.
The Canadian system has postal code devoted to one person. Each year many letters come from children around the world to: Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0 ( H0 H0 H0).
With letters you got 26 possibilities per digit, should be enough shouldn't it? (I don't know how the canadian system works, but others make due with just numbers in the postal codes and so only have 10 possibilities per digit.) I remember, the germans increased theirs by 1 digit after reunification. (Before they had 4 digit numbers, since then 5 digits.) Comming from a neighbouring country, i remember watching a weekly TV show about their new postal codes in which the public could win prizes.
@@nirfz Our Canadian system works just fine. Should we decide to annex Austria and Czechoslovakia, invade Poland, France and Russia then maybe the German model is something to look at.
Oh my, I remember when that started when I was a child in 1963. I remember people complaining about having to know and add those numbers. In fact, I can remember my mom writing "City" or "Local" when a letter was sent within the same municipality.
Sorta like when gigantic switch rooms still routed phone calls. If the 3 digit prefix was the same as the number you were dialing from, you only had to dial the last 5 (it may have been 4 in some cases) digits of the number you were calling. So if you were calling from 456-7890 to 456-1234 you just dialed 6-1234 and it went through. Now its all 10 digit dialing (I think it's everywhere now). However I'm not old enough to remember calling "Chesterfield 1234" lol
@@oldsguy354 I remember the Dickens, Elgin and walnut exchanges in Baton Rouge. It was how you could tell where a person lived by their telephone exchange.
wow, i had no idea that zip codes were so (comparatively) new. i thought they had been in widespread usage for much longer than they apparently have. i love watching episodes even on topics i already know about, but being able to learn something totally new like this is my favourite. thanks for the edutainment, history guy! :>
If you find any old fashioned business artifacts around the house, you'll often see transitions in phone area code and zip code periods. Yard sticks from hardware stores, for example, seem to last forever.
It's surprising how recent many "normal" things are today. Standard time has only been around since 1883, and typical barcodes showed up in the 1950s. Both had major resistance but are things we take for granted today.
I have always seen or used ZIP codes (I am 63 y/o). I remember "ZIP+4" and when the "New" State abbreviations came out. I also remember when the Post Office was a Government Office and "encouraged" the use of ZIP Codes.
I remember using 'Calif' as an abbreviation for California in grade school in the late 70s. Then at some point our teacher told us we should use CA. I didn't know the change was actually far older than that time.
I remember that zip codes came out when I was in kindergarten and that my teacher, after teaching us our numbers, taught us our brand new zip code. My parents struggled with remembering to put the zip code on their envelopes, but 5 year old me remembered because zip codes were a new and exciting thing at that time.
My mom has been a letter carrier for nearly 30 years, so I have had a connection and interest in mail service since i was about 5 years old... yet another informative and insightful video from the History Guy :-) thanks for all the great content
Wow !! Your mom is very strong to carry mail for so many decades !! Arduous work in all types of weather. A young restaurant worker of mine quits to become a mailman and lasts eight months worn out ! 🥴 (he came back to our diner). 🤣
when I was a very young child I can remember getting mail with just a name and city on it. we lived in a very small town and the postmaster knew every one.
Somewhere in the mix the Military Branches got involved. Whenever I served overseas, in order to get mail had to provide my Unit, Company Designation and an APO (Army Post Office) number to the folks back stateside so they could send me mail and/or packages. US Army 1967 to 1971.
I'm old enough to recall living through the introduction of zip codes. No longer were the two digits we'd used on our letters in the past deemed sufficient. I remember needing to pore through the massive tome in the local post office to find the zip codes of an addressee - yes, everything was in print, children!
I'm that old too! Having to find a book in the library meant scrolling thru a file card system to find the book rack number. I'm glad that's over with. 🤣🤣
The post office had a contest for employees to come up with a way to advertise using ZIP codes in rural america. The winner of the contest was the post master in my home town of Melcher, Iowa (50163). His entry...place ZIP codes on town water towers. Melcher was the first to do just that.
I think a lot of people fail to realize the significance that it wasn't much need for a postal system before modern history; it's only within the last century or two that literacy has been, comparatively commonplace.
By the second half of the 19th century mail order businesses were huge in the United States. Back in the day Sears started off as a mail order business which sent out millions of catalogs each year. It was the Amazon of its time.
In Canada, instead of a "Mr. Zip", the advertising introducing our 6-character postal code featured a very cute, very young child wearing his daddy's postal delivery uniform hat and mailbag with the quote: "Daddy, what's a coastal pode?" Hilarious, and memorable.
@@lordshipmayhemThe North Pole is in Canada, after all! Santa gets letters from around the world, and Canada Post volunteers answer every one that has a return address!
I retired from the Postal Service after 30 years of service. I always enjoyed tidbits of postal history, including discussing the zip code program. I love this video, and was especially impressed that you mentioned Ethel Merman singing the ZIP code song! In the spot, she was referred to as 'Miss Zip'. For many years, I conducted orientation for new postal employees and always received hearty chuckles for my impersonation of this song. Great stuff, thanks!
Thanks history guy. Hey the letter sorting machine you have there looks ancient, I operated one up to the early 90s at west palm beach,fl 33406 post office as automation took over, we had six LSM machines 20 crew per machine. 12 hour shifts when busy
@@jamesatipton2432 I was an LSM clerk in Cleveland, OH from 1987-93, and have been in letter automation since March 1993 (I have been a postal employee overall since February 1986).
7:55 The machines that are being operated in the picture were called LSM, for Line Sorting Machine. There were three people for each position, one person would load the machine from trays of letters, one person would key numbers, depending on whether they were keying for local or out of the areas zip codes. Each letter would be lifted by an arm that would place it in front of the operator who would then key the appropriate numbers. The letter would go into the machine then would follow the path the LSM was keyed for. A third person, the "sweeper" would unload letters into trays as they were completed sorting. Each position would operate for 45 minutes, then rotate. A good operator could key, if my memory serves me correctly, around six to eight feet of letters per hour. The machine in the picture, on the big tray, is loaded with about 2 1/2 feet of letters. Carpal tunnel syndrome was a fairly common thing.
As automation made letter sorting even more hands off the amount of damaged mail started rise. Up through the LSM period our "damaged mail" repair area would fit into a closet. By the time I retired in 2020 our damaged mail repair area was about the square feet of a small house.
Here in Australia, we used a common sense approach to our postcodes. Every state had a basic number and the postcodes went off that state number. For example, in New South Wales the number was 2. The postcodes for Sydney were 2000 and 2001. Surrounding suburbs were incremented from that. The suburb I was born in was 2205. The area codes for phone numbers were the same. Sydney was 02. Regional areas had 3 digit area codes based off that. When Telecom (the then government phone service provider - an offshoot of the postal service) changed their name to Telstra (commonly called Helstra), they also decided to rationalise the phone numbers further by getting rid of 6 and 7 digit numbers and making them all 8 digit numbers (plus a 2 digit area code). They did this by adding a 9 or a 99 to the start of the shorter numbers (making it easy to remember). Thus the entire state had an area code of 02 (regional areas just had the 3 digit shifted into the rest of the number). This meant you could call anywhere in the state without using an area code. All the states were the same. Until some genius at Telstra decided that all mobile numbers should begin with 04. That screwed things up for Queensland. The area code for South Australia and Western Australia were merged into one to adjust for it. What a clusterfark that was.
I remember as a child when I realized those numbers represented places 🙈that was a long time ago! Amazingly so many people do not know how the numbers increase across the nation. I work as a travel consultant and they are surprised when I can guess where they live based off their zip code! Thanks HG!
My grandpa worked for the USPS, his last job was sorting mail on a mail car between LA & Phoenix during the 1960’s. He was there for the introduction of the zip codes which he had to learn.
Rowland Hill, whose proposed reforms to the post office led to the "penny post", had done studies and concluded that the major expense of mailing a letter was the handling it required - to pick up, sort, pack in the correct bag, re-sort, and deliver - and not the cost of the distance it was carried. Previous post charges were made based on distance and could be quite high, and the postal service lost money, . Hill realized that by not charging for distance, but a small flat rate, the volume of mail would soon be enough to more than cover the cost of the service. A penny stamp would carry a half-ounce letter anywhere in the United Kingdom. Hill's prophecy proved correct. The real problem came with sending mail to other countries, which was an expensive, complex, and time-consuming process. Lincoln's Postmaster General, Montgomery Blair, worked with other nations on the simplifying the system, although his simple proposal was not adopted until several years later. It remained in use until fairly recently, when it was replaced by the current, complex system now used for foreign mail.
As a small child I lived on an island in Puget Sound. I don't remember any postal codes but we lived on a "Rural Route" with a digit, "Rt1". Later I moved into they city and we had a two digit postal code, "Seattle 44". Zip Codes were introduced while I was in my last year of High School, "98144". I know there are the 9 digits they want you to use but now at age 76 is all I can do just to remember the 5 I've used most of the life. Thanks History Guy!
I love hearing about history from people who lived through it. I love hearing my grandma talk about family history. She also filled it in with world hitory and national history and how it affected her. so did my other grandma. i have always had an interest in history especially the personal affect on people. I love it when people tell the history of things as a personal affect on a family or person but a person's point of view of historicla events. I love documentaries like this.
In 1960 I moved to San Diego where I would often receive mail the day after it was mailed in Durham, NC. This mail was addressed to San Diego 33 and sent by air mail. I also received main on Bermuda just as expeditiously. Then came the zip code and the doing away with air mail. My service has never been as good since.
Was watching the movie Queenpins and the history of zip codes came up. I started to research it on my own and now I can sit back and get a lesson from the best teacher himself. The New Year is starting off right!!!!
I remember seeing Mr Zip when I was a kid. Wow, this is just another example of why this is my favorite RUclips channel. Thank you sir, I appreciate your good work. 🏆
I grew up with Mr. Zip! I also worked at the Post Office main branch in my city of Louisville, KY, both on one of the older machines as a MUM clerk (mis-sorted, unzipped, mis-sent), and the newer OCR's. we MUM clerks would type the zip code of each mail piece to re-sort them. Fun machine! I also worked on the floor where original mail was sorted on the OCR's, those automated machines that sort mail at the speed of a hurricane! They get fed, the machine sorts mail into stacks which get boxed in those postal trays you've seen, and covers are slipped onto the boxes, a zip code label put on it, and it goes to its next stop on the trucks for local delivery, or to its delivery point by air nationally or internationally. I loved working there! I wish I could continue to work there! Alas! When you aren't a permanent employee, you can't work there more than six months out of the year! I'd say, though, that such a situation would make perfect summer work for a teacher! If I could have stayed, I would have made a career of the United States Postal Service!
Nice to see the picture of the kitty again. Whoever does your introductions is very clever. Always different, unique. About the USPS, and speedy mail delivery, how about an article on why so much high speed sorting machines have been taken out of service?
Easy, DeJoy (current Posmaster General) along with more than a few rich people want to privatize the US postal system and removing sorting machines helps in this effort by delaying mail delivery.
I am only guessing, but with first class letter volumes continually dropping, there is simply no need for so many sorting machines. First class letter volume is down as much as 95 percent from the maximum volumes of the 1980's. There are simply very few birthday cards, bill payments, and even government benefits checks being mailed now. The post office itself does all of its Internal communications via email. If a particular sorting plant has multiple machines but they only get used for 2 hours each every night, then why not remove most of them so that one or two machines will run for 6 or 8 hours. Otherwise, the post office ends up paying machine operators to sit around for most of their shift and for machine mechanics to keep fixing and maintaining machines to do work that will never come. Parcels are the growing segment of the post office's business. And parcels take up more space, so removing a bunch of hardly used letter sorting machines can free up a LOT of floor space to allow work space for manual sorting of parcels or even new package sorting equipment. The only real crime in removing all the expensive letter sorting machines is that the newer ones are not be re-allocated to sorting facilities that may have old ones that are overdue for replacement. Or some kept around as spare parts. Or at least disposed of not as regular landfill trash but turned in as scrap metals for cash. I mail 60 to 100 parcels every WEEK and I keep careful watch of the tracking for most every parcel. The USPS sorting plants do an excellent job getting packages where they need to go as fast as possible. All of the delays during COVID are, fortunately, behind us. There does remain a huge shortage of final letter carriers at most every post office and that is where mail delays are the greatest problem. I am NOT a fan of Mr. DeJoy. I believe he has ulterior motives, such as moving as much contract mail trucking to HIS corporate interests as possible. As of July 10, 2023, less mail will be traveling by airplane and will be traveling by truck instead. So that a piece of mail from Dallas to Chicago will no longer go by plane and be delivered the next day, it may spend 2 or 3 days traveling by trucks. And Mr. DeJoy is known to hate sending trucks that are not full. So, instead of a truck going from Pittsburgh to Baltimore every day, the truck may sit and wait a day or two until it is full before making that trip. That will, of course, also delay mail going in the reverse direction on the return trip, as well as all the stops in between.
Thanks for reminding me that I am old. Remember clearly the introduction of Mr. Zip and the mass ads for using zip codes. A piece of history I did not even considered as history. Good job!
USA mail used to be delivered twice each day. My parents courted by mail, frequently writing so they would receive a morning and afternoon letter. I found their love letters in the attic when I was a boy. I tore off all of their antique stamps for my new stamp collection hobby thinking that I had hit the stamp collection treasure trove. I resented the zip code introduction and still resent having to use it, but I still mail often and faithfully comply.
watching this video made a forgotten memory return.. I now remember some of the zipcode ads on TV as a child being born in 1960.. I had forgotten all about them
The Persian postal system is attested to in the Book of Esther (chronologically the last of the books of the Hebrew Bible, recounting events about 5 centuries before the common era). 1:22 Letters were sent out to every country that the king ruled. Each country received the letter in its own language... 3:12-13 The king's scribes were called together... They wrote everything Haman had ordered. The addressed the letters to each of the rulers in each of the lands ... Speedy messengers went to every country that the king ruled, bringing letters... etc.
@OneHairyGuy I visited Iran in 1970. I was struck by how friendly the people were and how terrifyingly awful the drivers were. Maybe the latter has changed for the better.
Very good reminder! Long distance communication has always been important. It would have been impossible to rule an empire without it. The Royal Navy is sometimes mentioned as the first primitive global communications network, constantly moving across the global British Empire.
My father was a postmaster in a small town in KY when Zip Code was instituted. There was a wooden cutout of Mr. Zip that came to our house on occasion. He then became a Postal Service Officer working on a consulting basis in DC to develop cost savings and efficiency - studying rural and star routes to determine expansion or elimination in eastern KY. The best way to be met at the front door with a rifle was to suggest someone's post office would close. When the PO went private during Nixon's administration and became USPS, his position was eliminated and we moved to a larger town in KY. He worked with the police and emergency systems to develop a mileage system and naming of rural roads so everyone could find the address and no one would have to change their house number if the routes were expanded or eliminated. Ex. 1111 John Smith Road was 11.11 miles from point X determined by the emergency services. It became the basis for the state of Kentucky's mail delivery.
I lived to see the 3 digit prefix for phone numbers, phone area codes and zip codes come into use in the US. Hard to imagine postal and phone service without them.
I was in junior high school when the Zip Code was instituted . My Social Studies teacher sent out letters with just the Zip Code after the addresses as,an experiment. They were all delivered.
As I was doing Christmas cards last month, I thought about how the ZIP code system worked. It never really crossed my mind until then. Thank you for the explainer
Found a post card from my grandfather to his kids when he was out of town. It was simply addressed “The Mullen Children, Croswell, Michigan” and the postcard was delivered to the farmhouse. Life was that simple!
Keep on trucking bow tie wearing history guy! I enjoyed this episode. I love to share your content with my kids. Sometimes I get an eye roll, but usually they ask a question or two about life and why things are the way they are. Thanks!
Fascinating info! Not mentioned is the 'why' most people were using zip codes by '68. People finally got tired of getting returned mail notated, "Not deliverable as addressed". I will admit I've never learned the +4 designation of my own zip. What fascinates me the most is that this is another one of those things that have now become commonplace in my own lifetime. Like area codes, cell phones, and email.
I used punchcards for code into the 80’s. The first person to set foot on the moon after using very basic computer power to get there…and return home alive.
plus 4 is unique to every address its actually only needed or used on letters its how the machines sort it in walk sequence for the carriers the ocr will spray the correct plus 4 and barcode not really needed to be written on especially on packages that only get sorted by route not delivery sequence
Mr. " I don't know your name": Over the last 5 years I have watched your videos and time after time and time again, your topics are so awesome! I love your work, and wish you had a chance to have your episodes broadcast on major networks. Your speaking voice is easy to listen to. In my opinion, you deserve to be on TV much more than Dr. Pimple Popper (another YT born show). You are not slanted towards one opinion or another that is obvious in your episodes. I think I can guess which way you may lean, but its never influenced your content which makes you a unique rarity in todays world. God bless, and thanks for creating such fun learning experiences for all of us to enjoy! Happy 2022 to you and Mrs. History Guy. We look forward to what fun history guy topics are in store,
Who knew anybody cared about zip codes tight concise & with your well honed delivery now I know alot more about something I didn't really care about but thanks to u I injoyed the learning!!!🤗🤗🤗👍👍👍
Excellent video as always. Grew up in a post office family. Dad was a carrier and brother a clerk. Here in the St. Louis area most of the post offices are divided into independent offices or branches of the St. Louis city post office. Section 631 is the St. Louis PO. So any ZIP code starting with these numbers is a branch. The proper city address is "St. Louis", no matter if the post office is in a suburb. Section 630 are the independent post offices. These are usually addressed with the local city's name. For instance, 63010 is addressed as Arnold, the city in which the post office is located. 63134 is addressed as St. Louis, even though it includes the cities of Berkeley, Edmundson, Woodson Terrace and parts of unincorporated St. Louis County. The St. Louis County seat is in the suburb of Clayton, which has its own post office, but since the ZIP is 63105 the proper address city is St. Louis.
The other reason why they wanted to get rid of the trains was they were more expensive. The railroads were paid 50 cents per mile per car. And pretty much every major railroad had a series of trains called "The Fast Mail" which were anything but fast, but were cheap to ride as a passenger. They kept the passenger trains alive in this country. In 1929, there were 20,000 passenger trains running in the US per day, half of which carried mail. By the time Amtrak was formed in 1970, the number of intercity trains had dropped to under 600 down from 10,000 40 year earlier. A lot of this was due to the loss of the mail subsidies and interstate highways.
It wasn't just the roadways. Back in the early twentieth century it was much cheaper for them to maintain lines that went directly where their depots were (which incidentally were also often combined with post offices), via the straight line rail towns built across the midwest. So the rail companies prioritized those routes. The problem was nobody was taking those lines much as the need to travel between small midwestern towns wasn't as big as the Northeast Corridor or the Great Lakes Circuit, so the rare group of passengers heading coast to coast or west and then south to Texas made up the majority of that traffic. North to south in the midwest weren't big for mail rail either, as packet ships did the majority of that work on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. By 1950 roadways and overland trucking had completely taken over what used to be the packet ships' domain, and by 1975 most long distance mail was done either by trucks or cargo air freight as the price of air travel dropped. So after the 1960s started the massive waves of consolidation, a lot of rail companies jettisoned the mail rail lines. The revelation of less lines eliminating so many costs spiraled out into them decommissioning all sorts of rail lines until only the freight rail remained by the time Amtrak started to expand from the Northwest Corridor in 1977.
Passenger rail is not economical or makes sense today. People no longer need to reach a Central City location. And once you get there, are you going to walk?
@@WALTERBROADDUS plenty of people take Uber or a taxi to the airports. There is no reason to assume people wouldn't with a train station. The average long distance trip is only 300 miles round trip. That is the perfect distance for a train. And it's only only to a big city, trains can easily connect a string of suburbs. The main reason to ride a train would be to avoid traffic. I and many people I know avoid certain trips because of traffic and a rail line already runs the length of the trip, but passenger service stops just before it would be useful.
When I was young I remember people complaining about being reduced to 'just a number' by business and the government. I'm happy to be just a number. It helps ensure that everyone receives equal treatment.
My great aunt ran the village post office, Train depot( same building), and the Mayor( my great uncle). The same family post office box is still used by members of my family. I believe the village has added 90 people in 100+ years...still growing!
I think it's rare anymore that I watch a history guy episode once without a pause. There is so much information it sometimes takes a minute to sink in. But I could do without that ending. I don't want that song to sink in any further!
Though it would be a very rare person who knew theirs, each delivery point now has a unique code. This allows sorting equipment to sort a majority of letter mail in the order of a carrier's delivery at a rate of 30k pcs per hour or more.
Great information! I am old enough to remember the campaigns to promote using zip codes. And before that our mom made us kids memorize our home address complete with the old 2-digit zone number. We had to sing both home address and phone number! Thanks for the memories!
That could indeed be interesting. I know that my home city had all the house numbers changed at one point in history, although I don't know why. Indianapolis, IN, if anyone wonders (or knows the answer.)
My moms extended family all came from the same city so you had generations growing up together. For some reason they referred to peoples homes by # & not so & so’s. My Nan’s was 470, cousins, 338 weird right? Ah family 😂
@@rcknbob1 I can recall when my house number was changed. Throughout the entire town all addresses were changed from "lot number" to the distance from the head of the street, one digit for every ten feet to the front door.
An interesting development of this idea is the work of ‘what 3 words’. Three (English language) words gives you a unique 3m square (from memory) anywhere on the planet. Perfect for drone deliveries!
Great vlog as always. Like 90210, you americans do the same with the ICAO three letter airport codes. LAX, DFW and so on. Here is a THG. Happy new year from OSL!
Wow. I think including that whole zip code song at the end was a master stroke. That song is a strange bit of history that may spark debate as to whether or not it deserves to be remembered.
One of the many instances in my lifetime where a new numbering system was decried as the "mark of the Devil", along with area codes and bar codes on merchandise. If memory serves the people of Kansas were especially upset with their Zip codes.
I worked for USPS for almost 22 years. We discovered that most people who complained about delayed or misdelivered mail usually had the wrong address on it or it was illegible.
Extremely interesting. Several companies when they asked me for my ZIP Code and I give them the four number addition say we don’t want that. We had a mail sorting office here in Frederick Maryland very efficient and very quick it was closed moved to a central one in Baltimore Maryland very inefficient very slow and lost mail has increased.
Same in town I grew up in. Small post office operated out of a converted one room schoolhouse. Probably 15 years ago mail sorting was centralized in a nearby city. It definitely added at least an extra day delay. The old post office stayed open for a few years, but only for PO boxes, mail/package drop off, ets. Our postmaster was great. Unless you had a common last name you could simply address something to someone's last name along with the town and ZIP, no street address, and it would get there no problem.
I grew up reading MAD magazine and remember an article about how a reader sent the magazine a letter with no address on the envelope except for a picture of Alfred E. Neuman and the correct zip code. It arrived at the magazine's offices untouched by the USPS 😁
I remember seeing some advertising mail at home around 1960 which had the city and two digits before the state. I figured the mailers were crazy a town of 2,500 people wasn't Chicago or New York which had those early postal codes. So our city 48 made no sense. 48 really. Then ZIP popped up and there was 48 at the end.
Great video. I learn more each view. Wish you'd do a follow-up video addressing related issues such as: 1. Why & how Great Britain's mail delivery & mail code system is considered (one of or) the most efficient in the world. 2. How Great Britain decided on its use of two groupings of 3 figures (I'm thinking an Alan Turing intuit): Number- Alpha-Number (space?) Number-Alpha-Number... (nan nan, or ana ana, or some combo) & sometimes 7 figures.
In the Canadian postal system the first character, a letter of the alphabet, denotes a geographic area ascending from east to west. The second character is the number 0 if the area is rural and 1 to 9 for a area within a city. Two cities have their own first character, M for Toronto and H for Montreal, therefore M0 and H0 do not exist. However, there is an exception to the rule. The Postal Code for the Santa Claus workshop, at the North Pole is H0H 0H0. (HO, HO, HO)
My dad developed a reporter's notebook in the 1960s, which he marketed to newspapers and police departments all over the US. His method was to mail a free sample, with an introductory letter, to a specific person at a specific address. I helped him while I was in school. I recall a well-worn paper-bound book that listed alphabetically every city & town's zip code in every state. He used that in typing up letters and envelopes for the samples, to the point where it literally fell apart. A major problem was always large cities with multiple zip codes - which one to choose. The answer was always to use the zip of that city's main post office, which always ended in xxx01. And let them route it from there.
FunFact: Mr Zip's full name was George Michael Zip. He was a very popular mailman in Dubuque Iowa (52002) but died after a long battle with cancer. For some time it was very popular for postal workers to say "Win one for the Zipper" during the annual Christmas time mail rush.
I remember Mr. ZIP, although Mrs. ZIP is a new one on me. My grandmother lived in a very rural area, and I remember the letters being addressed Star Route 5. Much later I learned what 'star route' was all about. Thanks!
Strings of numbers to remember, new systems for communication, "foreign" ideas and people; this is not the first time our society has been tested. I wish I could feel some comfort in our survival thus far but anxiety is built into our DNA. What is comforting is that our past struggles and successes have not been forgotten. We can improve and our History Guy is a part of that memory and advancement. He is far more than a moments entertainment.
My great-grandmother was the postmaster of a small town in Iowa (population 75). Her kitchen table was the town's post office. Nearly everyone in that town was family and friends, so they stopped by her house for cup of coffee and to pick up their mail. 😃
Same at my great grandparents' place near Minnesota's "Big Bog," but for fewer people!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thats cool 😎
MY great great grandmother was a post master in a very small town in Iowa!! In Brazil
It’s no longer like that anywhere
That's so cool.... what a time to be alive
I remember when Zip codes were first instituted. I also remember when they switched to abbreviating state names with just two letters. God, I feel old!
I remember having letters returned because I used the two letter state abbreviation without the zip code and old abbreviation with a zip code. It was a tough learning curve!
When I was a kid in the 1970s, I used the longer abbreviation for states, but that was because my parents and grandparents used the longer abbreviations. It wasn’t until the late 70s and early 80s that I started using the two letter abbreviations.
me to.
I didn't until you pointed out the change to 2 letter abbreviations. Yep, remember that one.
@@HVACSoldier Same here - born in '70, I remember going through school and my parents using the longer names, too. It may have been so that it didn't look like another state abbreviation, or because that's how they had always done it; that I'm not sure of, but I do remember being taught how to address an envelope properly in school, and writing letters to family members. While I'm grateful for the instant communication that texting and the like brings, I also will say I miss those days. :)
The General Electric plant in Schenectady NY has it's own zip code of 12345. Due to the large volume of children who would write to Santa and have no idea of the zip code of the north pole, 12345 was used quite a bit. From what I've been told some of the workers would take time to write the kids back.
My father was a longtime USPS employee. He started in 1949 as a sorter, throwing letters into a wall of bins. To help with the sorting, he became interested in memory tricks. If you give home a name, he could tell you what page it was on in the Chicago telephone book. He worked many years behind the counter in Chicago post offices. Before he retired in the 1980s, he supervised a large crew operating sorting machines at the Chicago main post office over the Eisenhower Expressway.
I think that was the largest building by floor area in the world at the time.
I live in a good-sized suburban Chicago town (population over 17,000) , and I walk a lot. I wave at the various mail carriers if they happen to be looking my way. One day, as I was walking, I passed a mailman - not the one who delivers to my house - and we chatted for a few minutes. He asked me my name and immediately knew my address. It seems that 10 years earlier he had the job of sorting the mail for the route that includes my house and remembered all the names and addresses!
My mom was just buried today at 71 years old. She worked in the Morgan and Farley Post office in New York City. She loved the post office for 25 years. This video really hits home. Thank you for all your work.
SO sorry for your loss. My most sincere condolences. ❤️
so sorry for your loss.
@@marypasco2213 Thank You.
@@jamesorenthal-bm4sp Thank You.
What was her name? A good friend of mine was a supervisor at Morgan during this time
Thanks THG for another well addressed piece of history. I'd all but forgotten "Mr Zip" but now remember how it was plastered seemingly everywhere back then.
" Look!!!, we found Zippy the Zip code man engraved on these ancient Egyptian walls !!!".
@@johnbockelie3899 haha.
@@danielulz1640 Well, the history guy said that the ancient Egyptians had a type of postal system.
@@johnbockelie3899 true, and I would love to see a hieroglyph of mr. Zip walking Like an Egyptian. LOL.
I know I’m old because my birth certificate came in an envelope without a zip code!
Sorting is always taken for granted, and I love that it's so standardized, but honestly, we ought to remember how these things happened.
That's why I love The History Guy, because he does remember.
I have to give you kudos on your choice of profile picture.
I wonder how you address a letter to Gallifrey? 😉
I think we could all relate to people being sick of phone numbers and zip codes the same way we're sick of having to remember all these random complicated passwords
Yeah. In the good old days we just had to remember 5 digit zip codes and 7 digit phone numbers. And 4 TV channels.
You don't have to remember passwords - use a password manager!
The weird thing is that we rarely bother memorizing phone numbers anymore because we store them all on our phones. If you are ever in an emergency where you've lost your phone, it's good to remember at least one friend or family member's phone number so you can dial them up from a desk phone quickly.
@@jozef_chocholacek yes, the convenience of being able to lose all your passwords at once is a no-brainer! Lol.
How about I also carry my life savings in my wallet, along with my car title, my house deed, my 401K and my safety deposit box key? Nothing like keeping all my valuables in one place to make it convenient for the thieves/hackers.
I also can't recommend a password manager enough in that case. they allow you to login much faster and also allow you to have better/more complex passwords which increases your accounts safety significantly
Now some people fight over zip codes... I've seen cases where a newly developed area wants to be includes in the zip code of a certain wealthy, fashionable neighborhood even though they are closer to a less wealthy neighborhood.
People also attempted to obtain desirable area codes, for example businesses wanted 212 area codes because that's the area code associated with New York City (Manhattan). Today with cell phones being nearly universal, the area code is largely becoming meaningless, since a person can have a 'New York City' area code but actually be living or working someplace else.
What a sad commentary on the pointlessness of "status" since, in the end, we're all buried in the same ground. (or have our ashes spread over it) Must suck to define your life by standards like that. (yours in general, not yours in particular)
As a high school exchange student to Germany in 1968, I actually needed to start writing letters and became aware of the US ZIP Code system. I experimented sending letters home using my family's name, PO Box, ZIP Code, followed by USA. The letters always got there in normal time.
If it has an address (PO box) and a zip code, or a city and state, it'll get there. In some small towns, you can expect ones without an address but with a name will arrive too
I tried using nothing more than a nine-digit zip code, and the test mail would go right to my mailbox, (which of course had that unique zip code).
I bet 1968 was an interesting time to go to college in Germany.
When I lived in the US in the late '90s and early '00s, I once received a package via USPS where the street and city names were misspelled, and the street type and even state abbreviation were wrong -- but the street number and ZIP code were correct, so it was still delivered to me.
A ZIP Code is a postal code used by the United States Postal Service (USPS). Introduced in 1963, the basic format consisted of five digits.
I can remember going to the post office as a child to look at the wanted poster of criminals. Local and FBI posters. Those were the days.
I did that too. There was a newsstand in the post office. It was run by a blind man. I think alot of these stands were operated by the blind. After the first moon landing, I went to the post office. Bought a copy of the Chicago Tribune newspaper, from that guy. The paper had special section on the lunar landing.That was at the post office in Grand Island Ne. I registered for the draft at the post office. Took off a couple of hours from high school to do it. I probably could have done it in a hour. But l really milked it out
Today, those 'wanted' posters are known as political ads...
I was going to catch one of those wanted criminals. It was my get rich quick scheme.
The towns of Sudbury and Concord Massachusetts had a battle over who would get the 01776 zip thought you would like this tid bit Love your show’s Thanks David
Learned the importance of plus four the hard way when I moved to New England in the early 2000's. Neighboring town shared our Zip code and had an identical address. Fun explaining to the utilities that we had not received our bill since it had been delivered to the next town over.
Darn still don’t know mine.
Yes, it's a pain when the city services themselves can't get the city correct.
@@samanthab1923 Just look at your junk mail. ZIP+4 will be present on any CR-RT Sort items. That is, bulk mail is sent out pre-sorted for a discount to the postage. Any computer-printed label will also fill it in.
@@JohnDlugosz TY 😊
Neighboring towns? Try neighboring almost identical street names!
In my neighborhood, there is a "Somestreet *Ct* ", and a "Somestreet *Way* " (street name changed to protect the guilty). There is also a house on each with the same number. So, we get each other's mail from time to time. Usually when the primary carrier has a day off...
As a preschooler in the early 1960’s I remember seeing a Mr. Zip standee in the Tampa, FL post office. I wished I could take it home to play with.
I think in a few old post offices we can still see Mr. Zip either painted on the wall or a wooded painted image of him on a stand. I never knew the history of Mr. Zip. I was born in 1965 and as a kid just did what I was told to do. I put a zip code on my letters.🤷🏻♂️
I made a good part of my living in pre-sorting mailing lists here in Canada. I wrote software to do this, printing companies with attached mail-assembly lettershops would print and prepare the mailings for delivery to the post office. In Canada, we have our unique system of the Postal Code, using a 6-character alphanumeric code in the form of ANA NAN, or, letter, digit, letter, digit, letter, digit. This makes the code very easy to identify in a string of address characters. In Canada, the people who developed the code had the benefit of seeing what did and did not work with both the US and British systems. Even at that, though, they did not foresee the migration of people to the West Coast, where they are now running out of postal codes, of the creation of Nunavut, which shares the “X” prefix of the rest of the Northwest Territories.
The Canadian system has postal code devoted to one person. Each year many letters come from children around the world to: Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0 ( H0 H0 H0).
With letters you got 26 possibilities per digit, should be enough shouldn't it? (I don't know how the canadian system works, but others make due with just numbers in the postal codes and so only have 10 possibilities per digit.)
I remember, the germans increased theirs by 1 digit after reunification. (Before they had 4 digit numbers, since then 5 digits.) Comming from a neighbouring country, i remember watching a weekly TV show about their new postal codes in which the public could win prizes.
@@nirfz Our Canadian system works just fine. Should we decide to annex Austria and Czechoslovakia, invade Poland, France and Russia then maybe the German model is something to look at.
Wasn't the Canadian postal code system a development of the postal code system that was used in the United Kingdom?
@@nirfz 20 actually as they avoid D, F, I, O, Q and U to avoid confusion with other numbers and letters
Oh my, I remember when that started when I was a child in 1963. I remember people complaining about having to know and add those numbers. In fact, I can remember my mom writing "City" or "Local" when a letter was sent within the same municipality.
Sorta like when gigantic switch rooms still routed phone calls. If the 3 digit prefix was the same as the number you were dialing from, you only had to dial the last 5 (it may have been 4 in some cases) digits of the number you were calling. So if you were calling from 456-7890 to 456-1234 you just dialed 6-1234 and it went through. Now its all 10 digit dialing (I think it's everywhere now). However I'm not old enough to remember calling "Chesterfield 1234" lol
Local or City mail never left town. It was sorted locally, delivered the same day or the next. Now it takes 5 days to get to you.
@@oldsguy354
Hello, Central?
Pennsylvania 6500 please.
@@oldsguy354 I remember the Dickens, Elgin and walnut exchanges in Baton Rouge. It was how you could tell where a person lived by their telephone exchange.
@@fredwiley3731 Yup! A card to my next door neighbor now would travel 130 miles to go 500 yards.
My dad bought the house he grew up in from his grandparents. He still remembers getting mail for
Heber Montgomery
Rural route 1
Hooper, Utah
wow, i had no idea that zip codes were so (comparatively) new. i thought they had been in widespread usage for much longer than they apparently have. i love watching episodes even on topics i already know about, but being able to learn something totally new like this is my favourite. thanks for the edutainment, history guy! :>
If you find any old fashioned business artifacts around the house, you'll often see transitions in phone area code and zip code periods. Yard sticks from hardware stores, for example, seem to last forever.
It's surprising how recent many "normal" things are today. Standard time has only been around since 1883, and typical barcodes showed up in the 1950s. Both had major resistance but are things we take for granted today.
I have always seen or used ZIP codes (I am 63 y/o). I remember "ZIP+4" and when the "New" State abbreviations came out. I also remember when the Post Office was a Government Office and "encouraged" the use of ZIP Codes.
I remember using 'Calif' as an abbreviation for California in grade school in the late 70s. Then at some point our teacher told us we should use CA. I didn't know the change was actually far older than that time.
People used to use O. for Ohio too
When I was in college in the early 2000s, my grandmother always sent me cards addressed “Mpls, Minn.” Loved her old school way…
I remember as a child watching commercials for using the ZIP code. Happy New Year to you and Josh, as well as your wife !
I remember the zip code commercial too, Smokey the Bear 🐻 and School House Rock 🪨.
My grandmother created the “Buckle-up for Safety” campaign of the National Advertising Council
I remember the tv commercials as well, the transition from postal zones to ZIP codes.
I remember that zip codes came out when I was in kindergarten and that my teacher, after teaching us our numbers, taught us our brand new zip code. My parents struggled with remembering to put the zip code on their envelopes, but 5 year old me remembered because zip codes were a new and exciting thing at that time.
My mom has been a letter carrier for nearly 30 years, so I have had a connection and interest in mail service since i was about 5 years old... yet another informative and insightful video from the History Guy :-) thanks for all the great content
Would you call that an Oedipost Complex?
Wow !! Your mom is very strong to carry mail for so many decades !! Arduous work in all types of weather.
A young restaurant worker of mine quits to become a mailman and lasts eight months worn out ! 🥴
(he came back to our diner). 🤣
Please tell me, what kind of shoes / boots does she wear?
I LOVE "The History Guy"! I was born late 1964. I remember the TV commercials on 3, 6, 10, 12, 17, 29, and 48 out of Philadelphia about zip codes.🥰
when I was a very young child I can remember getting mail with just a name and city on it. we lived in a very small town and the postmaster knew every one.
Somewhere in the mix the Military Branches got involved. Whenever I served overseas, in order to get mail had to provide my Unit, Company Designation and an APO (Army Post Office) number to the folks back stateside so they could send me mail and/or packages. US Army 1967 to 1971.
I'm old enough to recall living through the introduction of zip codes. No longer were the two digits we'd used on our letters in the past deemed sufficient. I remember needing to pore through the massive tome in the local post office to find the zip codes of an addressee - yes, everything was in print, children!
I'm that old too! Having to find a book in the library meant scrolling thru a file card system to find the book rack number. I'm glad that's over with. 🤣🤣
The post office had a contest for employees to come up with a way to advertise using ZIP codes in rural america. The winner of the contest was the post master in my home town of Melcher, Iowa (50163). His entry...place ZIP codes on town water towers. Melcher was the first to do just that.
The Swinging Six has got to be the most 60's thing ever.
I think a lot of people fail to realize the significance that it wasn't much need for a postal system before modern history; it's only within the last century or two that literacy has been, comparatively commonplace.
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By the second half of the 19th century mail order businesses were huge in the United States. Back in the day Sears started off as a mail order business which sent out millions of catalogs each year. It was the Amazon of its time.
In Canada, instead of a "Mr. Zip", the advertising introducing our 6-character postal code featured a very cute, very young child wearing his daddy's postal delivery uniform hat and mailbag with the quote: "Daddy, what's a coastal pode?" Hilarious, and memorable.
By the way, letters to Santa from Canadian kids bear the postal code, H0H 0H0.
@@lordshipmayhemThe North Pole is in Canada, after all! Santa gets letters from around the world, and Canada Post volunteers answer every one that has a return address!
I retired from the Postal Service after 30 years of service. I always enjoyed tidbits of postal history, including discussing the zip code program. I love this video, and was especially impressed that you mentioned Ethel Merman singing the ZIP code song! In the spot, she was referred to as 'Miss Zip'. For many years, I conducted orientation for new postal employees and always received hearty chuckles for my impersonation of this song. Great stuff, thanks!
Thanks history guy. Hey the letter sorting machine you have there looks ancient, I operated one up to the early 90s at west palm beach,fl 33406 post office as automation took over, we had six LSM machines 20 crew per machine. 12 hour shifts when busy
The MPLSM. I operated one during the 1980's.
@@jamesatipton2432 I was an LSM clerk in Cleveland, OH from 1987-93, and have been in letter automation since March 1993 (I have been a postal employee overall since February 1986).
Wow. That’s fascinating. Always cool to hear how common things today came about. Happy new year !
7:55 The machines that are being operated in the picture were called LSM, for Line Sorting Machine. There were three people for each position, one person would load the machine from trays of letters, one person would key numbers, depending on whether they were keying for local or out of the areas zip codes. Each letter would be lifted by an arm that would place it in front of the operator who would then key the appropriate numbers. The letter would go into the machine then would follow the path the LSM was keyed for. A third person, the "sweeper" would unload letters into trays as they were completed sorting. Each position would operate for 45 minutes, then rotate. A good operator could key, if my memory serves me correctly, around six to eight feet of letters per hour. The machine in the picture, on the big tray, is loaded with about 2 1/2 feet of letters. Carpal tunnel syndrome was a fairly common thing.
As automation made letter sorting even more hands off the amount of damaged mail started rise. Up through the LSM period our "damaged mail" repair area would fit into a closet. By the time I retired in 2020 our damaged mail repair area was about the square feet of a small house.
Here in Australia, we used a common sense approach to our postcodes. Every state had a basic number and the postcodes went off that state number. For example, in New South Wales the number was 2. The postcodes for Sydney were 2000 and 2001. Surrounding suburbs were incremented from that. The suburb I was born in was 2205.
The area codes for phone numbers were the same. Sydney was 02. Regional areas had 3 digit area codes based off that.
When Telecom (the then government phone service provider - an offshoot of the postal service) changed their name to Telstra (commonly called Helstra), they also decided to rationalise the phone numbers further by getting rid of 6 and 7 digit numbers and making them all 8 digit numbers (plus a 2 digit area code). They did this by adding a 9 or a 99 to the start of the shorter numbers (making it easy to remember). Thus the entire state had an area code of 02 (regional areas just had the 3 digit shifted into the rest of the number). This meant you could call anywhere in the state without using an area code.
All the states were the same. Until some genius at Telstra decided that all mobile numbers should begin with 04. That screwed things up for Queensland. The area code for South Australia and Western Australia were merged into one to adjust for it. What a clusterfark that was.
A small reference to Postal Zones can be found in the Elvis song "Return to Sender."
I remember as a child when I realized those numbers represented places 🙈that was a long time ago! Amazingly so many people do not know how the numbers increase across the nation. I work as a travel consultant and they are surprised when I can guess where they live based off their zip code! Thanks HG!
I remember seeing the use zip code ads with Mr. Zip back when I was a kid in the early 60's.
My grandpa worked for the USPS, his last job was sorting mail on a mail car between LA & Phoenix during the 1960’s. He was there for the introduction of the zip codes which he had to learn.
Rowland Hill, whose proposed reforms to the post office led to the "penny post", had done studies and concluded that the major expense of mailing a letter was the handling it required - to pick up, sort, pack in the correct bag, re-sort, and deliver - and not the cost of the distance it was carried. Previous post charges were made based on distance and could be quite high, and the postal service lost money, . Hill realized that by not charging for distance, but a small flat rate, the volume of mail would soon be enough to more than cover the cost of the service. A penny stamp would carry a half-ounce letter anywhere in the United Kingdom. Hill's prophecy proved correct.
The real problem came with sending mail to other countries, which was an expensive, complex, and time-consuming process. Lincoln's Postmaster General, Montgomery Blair, worked with other nations on the simplifying the system, although his simple proposal was not adopted until several years later. It remained in use until fairly recently, when it was replaced by the current, complex system now used for foreign mail.
It's great to see how the History Guy succeeds in putting real zip into history that deserves to be remembered. 😉
As a small child I lived on an island in Puget Sound. I don't remember any postal codes but we lived on a "Rural Route" with a digit, "Rt1". Later I moved into they city and we had a two digit postal code, "Seattle 44". Zip Codes were introduced while I was in my last year of High School, "98144". I know there are the 9 digits they want you to use but now at age 76 is all I can do just to remember the 5 I've used most of the life. Thanks History Guy!
I love hearing about history from people who lived through it. I love hearing my grandma talk about family history. She also filled it in with world hitory and national history and how it affected her. so did my other grandma. i have always had an interest in history especially the personal affect on people. I love it when people tell the history of things as a personal affect on a family or person but a person's point of view of historicla events. I love documentaries like this.
In 1960 I moved to San Diego where I would often receive mail the day after it was mailed in Durham, NC. This mail was addressed to San Diego 33 and sent by air mail. I also received main on Bermuda just as expeditiously. Then came the zip code and the doing away with air mail. My service has never been as good since.
Was watching the movie Queenpins and the history of zip codes came up. I started to research it on my own and now I can sit back and get a lesson from the best teacher himself. The New Year is starting off right!!!!
I remember seeing Mr Zip when I was a kid. Wow, this is just another example of why this is my favorite RUclips channel. Thank you sir, I appreciate your good work. 🏆
I grew up with Mr. Zip!
I also worked at the Post Office main branch in my city of Louisville, KY, both on one of the older machines as a MUM clerk (mis-sorted, unzipped, mis-sent), and the newer OCR's. we MUM clerks would type the zip code of each mail piece to re-sort them. Fun machine!
I also worked on the floor where original mail was sorted on the OCR's, those automated machines that sort mail at the speed of a hurricane! They get fed, the machine sorts mail into stacks which get boxed in those postal trays you've seen, and covers are slipped onto the boxes, a zip code label put on it, and it goes to its next stop on the trucks for local delivery, or to its delivery point by air nationally or internationally.
I loved working there! I wish I could continue to work there! Alas! When you aren't a permanent employee, you can't work there more than six months out of the year!
I'd say, though, that such a situation would make perfect summer work for a teacher!
If I could have stayed, I would have made a career of the United States Postal Service!
Hello there👋👋, how are you doing today? Hope you are having a good day? God bless you!!!❤️
Nice to see the picture of the kitty again.
Whoever does your introductions is very clever. Always different, unique.
About the USPS, and speedy mail delivery, how about an article on why so much high speed sorting machines have been taken out of service?
Yes, please!
Easy, DeJoy (current Posmaster General) along with more than a few rich people want to privatize the US postal system and removing sorting machines helps in this effort by delaying mail delivery.
You have to be kidding about the intros. Just not needed, and in no way seem to connect to the subject of each video.
I am only guessing, but with first class letter volumes continually dropping, there is simply no need for so many sorting machines. First class letter volume is down as much as 95 percent from the maximum volumes of the 1980's. There are simply very few birthday cards, bill payments, and even government benefits checks being mailed now. The post office itself does all of its Internal communications via email.
If a particular sorting plant has multiple machines but they only get used for 2 hours each every night, then why not remove most of them so that one or two machines will run for 6 or 8 hours. Otherwise, the post office ends up paying machine operators to sit around for most of their shift and for machine mechanics to keep fixing and maintaining machines to do work that will never come.
Parcels are the growing segment of the post office's business. And parcels take up more space, so removing a bunch of hardly used letter sorting machines can free up a LOT of floor space to allow work space for manual sorting of parcels or even new package sorting equipment.
The only real crime in removing all the expensive letter sorting machines is that the newer ones are not be re-allocated to sorting facilities that may have old ones that are overdue for replacement. Or some kept around as spare parts. Or at least disposed of not as regular landfill trash but turned in as scrap metals for cash.
I mail 60 to 100 parcels every WEEK and I keep careful watch of the tracking for most every parcel. The USPS sorting plants do an excellent job getting packages where they need to go as fast as possible. All of the delays during COVID are, fortunately, behind us. There does remain a huge shortage of final letter carriers at most every post office and that is where mail delays are the greatest problem.
I am NOT a fan of Mr. DeJoy. I believe he has ulterior motives, such as moving as much contract mail trucking to HIS corporate interests as possible. As of July 10, 2023, less mail will be traveling by airplane and will be traveling by truck instead. So that a piece of mail from Dallas to Chicago will no longer go by plane and be delivered the next day, it may spend 2 or 3 days traveling by trucks. And Mr. DeJoy is known to hate sending trucks that are not full. So, instead of a truck going from Pittsburgh to Baltimore every day, the truck may sit and wait a day or two until it is full before making that trip. That will, of course, also delay mail going in the reverse direction on the return trip, as well as all the stops in between.
What a delightfule story about Mr. Zip and his code. Thanks.
Your ability to extemporaneously speak on a subject of historical significance is a rare gift, sir... thank you...
I’d bet there is a fair amount of time and research in each clip. Nonetheless he has a talent for sure
His delivery is so good it certainly sounds extemporaneous but this is undoubtedly scripted.
Thanks for reminding me that I am old. Remember clearly the introduction of Mr. Zip and the mass ads for using zip codes. A piece of history I did not even considered as history. Good job!
USA mail used to be delivered twice each day. My parents courted by mail, frequently writing so they would receive a morning and afternoon letter. I found their love letters in the attic when I was a boy. I tore off all of their antique stamps for my new stamp collection hobby thinking that I had hit the stamp collection treasure trove.
I resented the zip code introduction and still resent having to use it, but I still mail often and faithfully comply.
watching this video made a forgotten memory return.. I now remember some of the zipcode ads on TV as a child being born in 1960.. I had forgotten all about them
The Persian postal system is attested to in the Book of Esther (chronologically the last of the books of the Hebrew Bible, recounting events about 5 centuries before the common era). 1:22 Letters were sent out to every country that the king ruled. Each country received the letter in its own language...
3:12-13 The king's scribes were called together... They wrote everything Haman had ordered. The addressed the letters to each of the rulers in each of the lands ... Speedy messengers went to every country that the king ruled, bringing letters... etc.
@OneHairyGuy I visited Iran in 1970. I was struck by how friendly the people were and how terrifyingly awful the drivers were. Maybe the latter has changed for the better.
Very good reminder! Long distance communication has always been important. It would have been impossible to rule an empire without it. The Royal Navy is sometimes mentioned as the first primitive global communications network, constantly moving across the global British Empire.
My father was a postmaster in a small town in KY when Zip Code was instituted. There was a wooden cutout of Mr. Zip that came to our house on occasion.
He then became a Postal Service Officer working on a consulting basis in DC to develop cost savings and efficiency - studying rural and star routes to determine expansion or elimination in eastern KY. The best way to be met at the front door with a rifle was to suggest someone's post office would close. When the PO went private during Nixon's administration and became USPS, his position was eliminated and we moved to a larger town in KY.
He worked with the police and emergency systems to develop a mileage system and naming of rural roads so everyone could find the address and no one would have to change their house number if the routes were expanded or eliminated. Ex. 1111 John Smith Road was 11.11 miles from point X determined by the emergency services. It became the basis for the state of Kentucky's mail delivery.
Happy New Year History Guy.
I'm glad you lengthened your format. That 50% increase allowed you to pack in more info - and I appreciate the effort.
I lived to see the 3 digit prefix for phone numbers, phone area codes and zip codes come into use in the US. Hard to imagine postal and phone service without them.
Thanks for adding the song at the end, you always have a great and educationally valuable production!
I was in junior high school when the Zip Code was instituted . My Social Studies teacher sent out letters with just the Zip Code after the addresses as,an experiment.
They were all delivered.
As I was doing Christmas cards last month, I thought about how the ZIP code system worked. It never really crossed my mind until then. Thank you for the explainer
Happy New Year THG.
Found a post card from my grandfather to his kids when he was out of town. It was simply addressed “The Mullen Children, Croswell, Michigan” and the postcard was delivered to the farmhouse. Life was that simple!
Hey man.
What?
You’re going to learn about zip codes.
What? Zip codes, why?
Because history deserves to be remembered.
Keep on trucking bow tie wearing history guy! I enjoyed this episode. I love to share your content with my kids. Sometimes I get an eye roll, but usually they ask a question or two about life and why things are the way they are. Thanks!
Fascinating info! Not mentioned is the 'why' most people were using zip codes by '68. People finally got tired of getting returned mail notated, "Not deliverable as addressed". I will admit I've never learned the +4 designation of my own zip. What fascinates me the most is that this is another one of those things that have now become commonplace in my own lifetime. Like area codes, cell phones, and email.
I used punchcards for code into the 80’s. The first person to set foot on the moon after using very basic computer power to get there…and return home alive.
plus 4 is unique to every address its actually only needed or used on letters its how the machines sort it in walk sequence for the carriers the ocr will spray the correct plus 4 and barcode not really needed to be written on especially on packages that only get sorted by route not delivery sequence
Mr. " I don't know your name": Over the last 5 years I have watched your videos and time after time and time again, your topics are so awesome! I love your work, and wish you had a chance to have your episodes broadcast on major networks. Your speaking voice is easy to listen to. In my opinion, you deserve to be on TV much more than Dr. Pimple Popper (another YT born show). You are not slanted towards one opinion or another that is obvious in your episodes. I think I can guess which way you may lean, but its never influenced your content which makes you a unique rarity in todays world. God bless, and thanks for creating such fun learning experiences for all of us to enjoy! Happy 2022 to you and Mrs. History Guy. We look forward to what fun history guy topics are in store,
Hello there👋👋, how are you doing today? Hope you are having a good day? God bless you!!!❤️
@@amytaylor8910 I''m doing so good. I hope you are as well,
@@moerush04 nice one. Yeah I’m well ty. Where are you from?
Exciting stuff. I think I’ll stick around for another year! 😉
Who knew anybody cared about zip codes tight concise & with your well honed delivery now I know alot more about something I didn't really care about but thanks to u I injoyed the learning!!!🤗🤗🤗👍👍👍
Postal Worker: Your package is too heavy, you have to put on more stamps.
Customer: Nu, more stamps will make it lighter?
Excellent video as always. Grew up in a post office family. Dad was a carrier and brother a clerk. Here in the St. Louis area most of the post offices are divided into independent offices or branches of the St. Louis city post office. Section 631 is the St. Louis PO. So any ZIP code starting with these numbers is a branch. The proper city address is "St. Louis", no matter if the post office is in a suburb. Section 630 are the independent post offices. These are usually addressed with the local city's name. For instance, 63010 is addressed as Arnold, the city in which the post office is located. 63134 is addressed as St. Louis, even though it includes the cities of Berkeley, Edmundson, Woodson Terrace and parts of unincorporated St. Louis County. The St. Louis County seat is in the suburb of Clayton, which has its own post office, but since the ZIP is 63105 the proper address city is St. Louis.
The other reason why they wanted to get rid of the trains was they were more expensive. The railroads were paid 50 cents per mile per car. And pretty much every major railroad had a series of trains called "The Fast Mail" which were anything but fast, but were cheap to ride as a passenger. They kept the passenger trains alive in this country. In 1929, there were 20,000 passenger trains running in the US per day, half of which carried mail. By the time Amtrak was formed in 1970, the number of intercity trains had dropped to under 600 down from 10,000 40 year earlier. A lot of this was due to the loss of the mail subsidies and interstate highways.
ruclips.net/video/2SfPyg-mGhU/видео.html
It wasn't just the roadways. Back in the early twentieth century it was much cheaper for them to maintain lines that went directly where their depots were (which incidentally were also often combined with post offices), via the straight line rail towns built across the midwest. So the rail companies prioritized those routes. The problem was nobody was taking those lines much as the need to travel between small midwestern towns wasn't as big as the Northeast Corridor or the Great Lakes Circuit, so the rare group of passengers heading coast to coast or west and then south to Texas made up the majority of that traffic. North to south in the midwest weren't big for mail rail either, as packet ships did the majority of that work on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. By 1950 roadways and overland trucking had completely taken over what used to be the packet ships' domain, and by 1975 most long distance mail was done either by trucks or cargo air freight as the price of air travel dropped. So after the 1960s started the massive waves of consolidation, a lot of rail companies jettisoned the mail rail lines. The revelation of less lines eliminating so many costs spiraled out into them decommissioning all sorts of rail lines until only the freight rail remained by the time Amtrak started to expand from the Northwest Corridor in 1977.
Passenger rail is not economical or makes sense today. People no longer need to reach a Central City location. And once you get there, are you going to walk?
@@WALTERBROADDUS Maybe, but the way airline travel is now, I wouldn't be too surprised to it come back! 🤷🏻♂️
@@WALTERBROADDUS plenty of people take Uber or a taxi to the airports. There is no reason to assume people wouldn't with a train station. The average long distance trip is only 300 miles round trip. That is the perfect distance for a train. And it's only only to a big city, trains can easily connect a string of suburbs. The main reason to ride a train would be to avoid traffic. I and many people I know avoid certain trips because of traffic and a rail line already runs the length of the trip, but passenger service stops just before it would be useful.
When I was young I remember people complaining about being reduced to 'just a number' by business and the government. I'm happy to be just a number. It helps ensure that everyone receives equal treatment.
Thanks, saw a video today where it mentioned that the US didn't have postcodes tilll like 70 years ago, was something that stood out to me :)
You had to have computers first.
My great aunt ran the village post office, Train depot( same building), and the Mayor( my great uncle). The same family post office box is still used by members of my family. I believe the village has added 90 people in 100+ years...still growing!
I think it's rare anymore that I watch a history guy episode once without a pause. There is so much information it sometimes takes a minute to sink in. But I could do without that ending. I don't want that song to sink in any further!
Though it would be a very rare person who knew theirs, each delivery point now has a unique code. This allows sorting equipment to sort a majority of letter mail in the order of a carrier's delivery at a rate of 30k pcs per hour or more.
I remember growing up with postal zones, city, zone, state. Ours was zone 8.
I was born under the 49 star flag.
Great information! I am old enough to remember the campaigns to promote using zip codes. And before that our mom made us kids memorize our home address complete with the old 2-digit zone number. We had to sing both home address and phone number! Thanks for the memories!
The History of House Numbers would make a great follow-up to this video, fantastic work as always thank you.
That could indeed be interesting. I know that my home city had all the house numbers changed at one point in history, although I don't know why. Indianapolis, IN, if anyone wonders (or knows the answer.)
My moms extended family all came from the same city so you had generations growing up together. For some reason they referred to peoples homes by # & not so & so’s. My Nan’s was 470, cousins, 338 weird right? Ah family 😂
@@rcknbob1 I can recall when my house number was changed. Throughout the entire town all addresses were changed from "lot number" to the distance from the head of the street, one digit for every ten feet to the front door.
An interesting development of this idea is the work of ‘what 3 words’. Three (English language) words gives you a unique 3m square (from memory) anywhere on the planet. Perfect for drone deliveries!
Great vlog as always. Like 90210, you americans do the same with the ICAO three letter airport codes. LAX, DFW and so on. Here is a THG. Happy new year from OSL!
Wow. I think including that whole zip code song at the end was a master stroke. That song is a strange bit of history that may spark debate as to whether or not it deserves to be remembered.
A very good historical story of the zip code. Thanks
One of the many instances in my lifetime where a new numbering system was decried as the "mark of the Devil", along with area codes and bar codes on merchandise. If memory serves the people of Kansas were especially upset with their Zip codes.
"When you control the mail, you control information!"--Newman
Wow! I am smitten with nostalgia, seeing Mr ZIP. Now I finally have an idea of how the system actually works. Thanks to THG! 👍👍
I worked for USPS for almost 22 years. We discovered that most people who complained about delayed or misdelivered mail usually had the wrong address on it or it was illegible.
Extremely interesting. Several companies when they asked me for my ZIP Code and I give them the four number addition say we don’t want that. We had a mail sorting office here in Frederick Maryland very efficient and very quick it was closed moved to a central one in Baltimore Maryland very inefficient very slow and lost mail has increased.
Many companies don't need that 4 digit extension because their computer system can get it from the address using a database.
Same in town I grew up in. Small post office operated out of a converted one room schoolhouse. Probably 15 years ago mail sorting was centralized in a nearby city. It definitely added at least an extra day delay. The old post office stayed open for a few years, but only for PO boxes, mail/package drop off, ets. Our postmaster was great. Unless you had a common last name you could simply address something to someone's last name along with the town and ZIP, no street address, and it would get there no problem.
I grew up reading MAD magazine and remember an article about how a reader sent the magazine a letter with no address on the envelope except for a picture of Alfred E. Neuman and the correct zip code. It arrived at the magazine's offices untouched by the USPS 😁
I remember seeing some advertising mail at home around 1960 which had the city and two digits before the state. I figured the mailers were crazy a town of 2,500 people wasn't Chicago or New York which had those early postal codes. So our city 48 made no sense. 48 really. Then ZIP popped up and there was 48 at the end.
Great video. I learn more each view. Wish you'd do a follow-up video addressing related issues such as: 1. Why & how Great Britain's mail delivery & mail code system is considered (one of or) the most efficient in the world. 2. How Great Britain decided on its use of two groupings of 3 figures (I'm thinking an Alan Turing intuit): Number- Alpha-Number (space?) Number-Alpha-Number... (nan nan, or ana ana, or some combo) & sometimes 7 figures.
In the Canadian postal system the first character, a letter of the alphabet, denotes a geographic area ascending from east to west. The second character is the number 0 if the area is rural and 1 to 9 for a area within a city.
Two cities have their own first character, M for Toronto and H for Montreal, therefore M0 and H0 do not exist. However, there is an exception to the rule. The Postal Code for the Santa Claus workshop, at the North Pole is H0H 0H0. (HO, HO, HO)
My dad developed a reporter's notebook in the 1960s, which he marketed to newspapers and police departments all over the US. His method was to mail a free sample, with an introductory letter, to a specific person at a specific address. I helped him while I was in school. I recall a well-worn paper-bound book that listed alphabetically every city & town's zip code in every state. He used that in typing up letters and envelopes for the samples, to the point where it literally fell apart. A major problem was always large cities with multiple zip codes - which one to choose. The answer was always to use the zip of that city's main post office, which always ended in xxx01. And let them route it from there.
FunFact: Mr Zip's full name was George Michael Zip. He was a very popular mailman in Dubuque Iowa (52002) but died after a long battle with cancer. For some time it was very popular for postal workers to say "Win one for the Zipper" during the annual Christmas time mail rush.
And stop calling me Shirley. :)
Dan, do you like movies about gladiators?
@@elcheapo5302 Who doesn't?
George Michael: "I'm Mr. Zip."
I think one of my sisters used to watch that show Dubuque Iowa, 52002.
Might I suggest a video exploring a similar concept, the evolution of telephone numbers, exchanges, and so on?
That zip code song is going to make me smile all day. :)
I remember Mr. ZIP, although Mrs. ZIP is a new one on me. My grandmother lived in a very rural area, and I remember the letters being addressed Star Route 5. Much later I learned what 'star route' was all about. Thanks!
Strings of numbers to remember, new systems for communication, "foreign" ideas and people; this is not the first time our society has been tested. I wish I could feel some comfort in our survival thus far but anxiety is built into our DNA. What is comforting is that our past struggles and successes have not been forgotten. We can improve and our History Guy is a part of that memory and advancement. He is far more than a moments entertainment.