In 1793, Thomas Jefferson requested equipment from France that could be used to evaluate the metric system within the United States, Joseph Dombey returned from France with a standard kilogram. Before reaching the United States, Dombey’s ship was blown off course by a storm and captured by pirates, and he died in captivity on Montserrat.
Yeah the costs to transition faced by the US today and 1850s Europe are different. Also you seem to have missed the part where here in the US we already use metric for a ton of stuff, I was just talking about how our infrastructure is built around customary units for distance. Why so mad bro?
Which is probably why they should have made the change over 50 years ago because as time rolls on it becomes exponentially more impossible to achieve.
We change bit by bit, industry by industry, and disaster by disaster here.