| Sumario: | The article provides information on the social aspect of spatial distance. Changing spatial distance, as measured by time and cost, is perhaps the most important factor in human affairs. Human activities have a spatial base. Population and institutions are spatially distributed in relation to natural resources and other geographic factors. It is on this basis of physical distribution that all our maps are constructed. Distance conceived in terms of time and cost acquires a new meaning, and distribution determined by these factors varies accordingly. Civilization is organized on a basis of fixity of location with mobility of goods and people. But while location is relatively fixed, position--the relation of one place to another--is variable due largely to the dynamic nature of time-cost distance. The most important differential in time-cost distance is between land and water space. Under present facilities of transportation unit of land space is about one-half the time distance of a unit of water space. The significance of this time-cost differential in world organization is of tremendous importance. Differential in cost distance by water is producing a seaboard civilization. Population is massing in coastal regions. Cost-distance differential in favor of seaboard places is further enhanced by the fact that freight rates between ports and important inland points are often the same or even lower than rates between intermediate points but a fraction of the mileage apart.
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