American Railway Travel The first commercial use of railroads to transport paying passengers came in 1830, but it was just as well to take a horse-or a horse-drawn conveyance. Stagecoaches could take you nearly anywhere, so railroads remained largely a nov- elty until 1850, by which time there were 9021 miles of rails, mostly in the Northeast. In the early days, the railroads usually followed the lines of least resistance in laying their tracks. The railroads went by rote ...
source https://traveling-cook.com/the-history-of-american-railway-travel/
