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“The present year witnesses the completion of the most important enterprise of the kind ever executed in any country— a line of railroad from the Missouri River across the Continent, and with connecting lines from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean. . . . the influence of these works . . . upon the commerce and welfare of this country must be immense. A vast commerce, yet in its infancy, already exists between the two shores of the Continent.”
-Source: Henry Varnum Poor, Manual of the Railroads of the United States, 1869-1870, 1889
