Transcontinental Travel Times in 1869

Little Rock Morning Republican, May 11 and 12, 1869, Little Rock, Arkansas.

PROMONTORY SUMMIT.

PROMONTORY SUMMIT, UTAH, May 10.
The last rail is laid and the last spike driven. The Pacific Railroad is complete to Point Junction, 1086 miles west of the Missouri river and 690 miles east of Sacramento.
Signed: Leland Stanford, C. P. R. R.; T. C. Durant, Sidney Dillon, John Duff, U. P. R. R.

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THE GREAT PACIFIC RAILROAD. —The near completion of the great Pacific Railroad attracts such general attention, not only throughout our own nation but in Europe, and inquiries are so frequent regarding the particulars of travel, that we have compiled the following table from the best material at hand, showing as nearly as possible the various distances run, from point to point, and the ordinary running time consumed in making the trip from New York, over each section of road, to San Francisco, the great metropolis of the Golden West:

	Miles.	Hours.
New York to Chicago, Ill.	911	36 1/2
Chicago to Omaha, Nebraska	491	25 1/2
Omaha to Bryan	858	48
Bryan to Ogden, Utah	233	10 3/4
Ogden to Elko, Nevada via Central Pacific Railroad	278	12 1/2
Elko to Sacramento, Cal., via Central Pacific Railroad	465	31
Sacramento to San Francisco, via Western Pacific Railroad	117	3 1/2
Total	3,323	161 1/2

Thus a total distance of 3,353 miles is made according to the present schedule, in six days, seventeen and a half hours, actual time, by a traveler's watch, from which we deduct three and a half hours, difference of time, when going west, leaving the apparent time consumed in making the trip six days and fourteen hours.

At San Francisco the mails will connect with the various steamship lines running on the Pacific, and may be landed at Honolulu in nine days from that city or fifteen and a half days from New York. They can reach Japan in nineteen days from San Francisco, or twenty-five and a half days from New York, or thirty-three to thirty-four days from Great Britain, thus beating the British mails sent via Suez by the Peninsular and Oriental steamers by from three to four weeks. The trip between Yokohama, Japan, and either Hong Kong or Shanghae, is readily accomplished by the Pacific Mail steamships in from five to six days, which added to the time in reaching Japan, will give the through time necessary to reach either of the above named ports in China. —Toledo Blade

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CPRR and UPRR Display Advertisements, May, 1869.
Courtesy of the Bruce C. Cooper Collection.