Travel to America

[queries]

Does anyone know how someone would have travelled from the UK to San Francisco at the turn of the 1900s? Would it have been ship to New York and then overland - and did overland mean train?

[sandyRoe]

There was a railway line across America in the 1870s. So, a ship to the east coast and then the railway seems the most likely route by the 1900s.

[jno]

going round the Horn by ship was hard work, so travelling by train would have made much more sense. That's how Phileas Fogg did it in Around the World in 80 Days (though travelling east).

[queries]

Next part of the question - in 1906 would this have been expensive? I have a female relative who apparently did this trip on her own and I wondered if if it is something that would have been considered unusual or risky?

[Clanad]

By our standards, the cost in that era doesn't seem exorbitant... around $120 (US) fpr second class (a simple wooden seat in a rather crowded passenger car. Took about 5 days depending on route selected. Keep in mind $125 in 1900 was probably near $1,200 in todays exchange...