On February 20, 1792, George Washington signed the Postal Service Act, creating the Post Office that still delivers the mail today. Prior to that, there had been a sort of ad hoc colonial postal service with little organization. It didn’t really work that well. Sometimes, it didn’t work at all.
That was only to be expected, though, because the Continental Congress had had to create it in a hurry when the Revolutionary War broke out, and the British postal system could no longer be used. But, while it had functioned well enough during the war, it was not well suited for long-term functioning.
The Postal Service Act established 75 post offices and about 2,400 miles of dedicated mail roads to serve the country’s 4 million or so inhabitants. Deliveries within a 30-mile radius cost 6 cents, which is equivalent to about $1.50 in today’s money. Mail going between 30 and 150 miles cost 12.5 cents, which is about $3 in today’s money. Mail was not delivered more than 150 miles away.
Fun Historical Fact: One of the other things the Postal Service Act did was make it illegal for mail carriers to open the mail they carried. This was most likely due to the fact that Benjamin Franklin had to resign from heading up the colonial postal service in shame because he had been opening and publishing the mail of the governor of Massachusetts in a bid to embarrass him.
Wonderful personal postal anecdote of the day: Friend sent me a package to my PO box. It was a SMALL package and my PO Box was LARGE. I went to pick it up exactly TWO days after it arrived and found nothing in my PO Box but a little pink card telling me to pick it up at the counter. The MANAGER, a little lady with a lousy attitude, told me: “You know, we only keep these packages for TWO days and then send them back!!” (WHAT???!!!) I insisted that she look for it — after a long wait she returned with it– it was such a small package that at least SIX of them could have fit in my PO Box. I cancelled my PO box subscription right then and there. No matter WHO the manager is at the 1210 Glebe Road Arlington VA post office, they usually never seem to be customer-friendly.