By 1800, two-thirds of the American population still lived within 50 miles of the coast, typically in farms or small towns. As the population grew rapidly in the early 19th century, settlement began expanding west across the Appalachian Mountains. Kentucky and Tennessee were the first states admitted to the Union on the western side of the Appalachians. Improved transportation technologies like steamboats and canals in the early 1800s helped integrate more remote regions into the national economy by linking communities across greater distances.