Re: transcontinental vs pacific

From: DSnoddy@aol.com

From the Oxford English Dictionary -

1853 Harper's Mag. Feb. 550/2 A company..to construct a trans-continental railroad.

earliest shown reference

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" ... A more general theme of conversation, however, has been the proposal of a company, embracing the wealthiest of New York capitalists, to construct a trans-continental railroad from New York to San Francisco. Incorporated by the Legislature of New York, these gentlemen have proposed to Congress to complete the great enterprise within three years; requiring no territorial cessions from the General Government, beyond a mere right of way; and no pecuniary aid, save a loan of the public credit for thirty millions of dollars, to he guaranteed by the work itself. The total capital of the enterprise is placed at a hundred millions of dollars. As presenting a feasible plan for achieving a splendid undertaking, imperatively required by the national wants and wishes; and as relieving Government from participating in the hazards involved in all such schemes, the New York proposition has met with an eminently favorable reception, and if so shaped in its details as to conciliate the several less practicable plans, which ante-dated it, will no doubt be the one adopted."

Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Volume 6, Issue 34. Harper & Bros. 1853. New York. Monthly Record of Current Events: pp. 549-554 at page 550, column 2.
Courtesy Making of America, Cornell University Library.