SUNSET LIMITED
Road trips might be a rite of passage in the
USA but it’s the railroad that built the nation,
pushing the frontier all the way west across the
continent. And no train plays a more important
part in the story of American expansion than
the legendary Sunset Limited.
Inaugurated in 1894, this transcontinental
route is the oldest continuously running train
service in America. It’s the railroad equivalent
of Route 66 – an epic east-west journey. Yet
most Americans don’t even know it exists.
Though it wasn’t the first route to complete the
coast-to-coast link, the Sunset Limited was the
fastest, slashing the journey time to just four
days and, arguably, marking the USA’s
emergence as a modern nation.
From wooded creek to city skyline to cactus-
studded desert, it’s like watching the pages
of a geography textbook flicker past the train
window. And just as it has for the last century,
the journey begins on the muddy banks of the
Mississippi, set to a soundtrack of jazz.