Dollar Fare

A while back, 1863, actually, in San Jose, California, citizens and business people got together to build a railroad from San Jose north to San Francisco.
At the time, the only transportation available to span the 50 miles between the two cities (although San Jose wasn’t really large enough to be called a city) was by wagon or by steamship. So farmers bringing produce and animals to market in San Francisco or people having business in one of the cities or just visiting, had to put up with the steamship’s all-day transit time, or several days travel by wagon.