Many made the trip by sea. My GG grandfather left Portland, Maine, on September 18, 1849, passed Cape Horn on December 3, and arrived in San Francisco on February 13. Others traveled to Panama, crossed the isthmus overland, and sailed north from there.
Mark Twain's "Roughing It" summarizes the fun of travelling west by stagecoach quite nicely.
ReplyDeleteRoughing It by Mark Twain
ReplyDeleteThe completion of the first transcontinental railroad reduced cross country travel time from six months to six days while making the trip roughly sixty times safer.
ReplyDeleteMany made the trip by sea. My GG grandfather left Portland, Maine, on September 18, 1849, passed Cape Horn on December 3, and arrived in San Francisco on February 13. Others traveled to Panama, crossed the isthmus overland, and sailed north from there.
ReplyDelete