What was the fastest way to travel across the country in 1869?

The author was just one of the thousands of people who flocked to the Transcontinental Railroad beginning in 1869. The railroad, which stretched nearly 2,000 miles between Iowa, Nebraska and California, reduced travel time across the West from about six months by wagon or 25 days by stagecoach to just four days.



People Also Ask

The building of the transcontinental railroad was a wonder. Three thousand miles over and through mountains, deserts, ravines, and rivers. When it was completed in 1869 the train traveled at the incredible speed of 22 miles an hour and the trip, all the way across the country took only 10 days!

MORE DETAILS

Back then, the common form of transit was horse and buggy. You were lucky to make 20 miles per hour at best. As for railroads, locomotives in the 1890s could approach 80 mph.

MORE DETAILS

At the beginning of the century, U.S. citizens and immigrants to the country traveled primarily by horseback or on the rivers. After a while, crude roads were built and then canals. Before long the railroads crisscrossed the country moving people and goods with greater efficiency.

MORE DETAILS

Accidents were compounded by running trains in both directions on single tracks and hasty and cheap trestle construction. In 1875, there were 1,201 train accidents. Five years later, in 1880, that rate had increased to 8,216 in one year.

MORE DETAILS

In 1934, Flying Scotsman achieved the first authenticated 100 mph (161 km/h) by a steam locomotive.

MORE DETAILS

The BB 9200 hauled Le Capitole at 200 km/h. After the successful introduction of the Japanese Shinkansen in 1964, at 210 km/h (130 mph), the German demonstrations up to 200 km/h (120 mph) in 1965, and the proof-of-concept jet-powered Aérotrain, SNCF ran its fastest trains at 160 km/h (99 mph).

MORE DETAILS