Last gap closed in a continuous rail line from Maine to New Orleans
The last gap in the continuous railroad from Bangor, Maine to New Orleans, Louisiana was closed with the laying of rail near Chattanoogo, in Tennessee. Aside from four ferry crossings en route, passengers were then able to travel the entire route of 1,996 miles over the tracks of eighteen independent rail companies in around eighty hours. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Francis Vincent, Vincent's Semi-Annual United States Register.... 1st of January and 1st of July, 1860 (Philadelphia: Francis Vincent, 1860), 85.