The service’s popularity continued to grow, and packages of many shapes and sizes joined into the mail stream year after year, with especially heavy numbers arriving in the weeks before Christmas. In Brooklyn, New York, the local armory was pressed into service to help hold the overflow of holiday packages prior to Christmas in 1924. The size and weight of packages continued to grow, allowing people to send even more items through the system. Today’s parcels can weigh up to 70 pounds, with a combined length and girth of 130 inches, and we’re sending many, many more of them. Even though the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t have a monopoly on parcels, post offices and mail centers across the country are kept busy with a steady stream of packages day and night. In fiscal 2011, the USPS moved 2.148 billion packages; a number that has continues to increase as more consumers shop online. While today’s technology is impressive, we still need someone to bring those goods to our doorsteps.
