Before speed came luxury. Beginning in 1882, Washington VIPs got to New York on the Congressional, a Pennsylvania Railroad train with red-white-and-blue-upholstered parlors that ads bragged were more like a “salon of Louis XIV.” An even nicer ride arrived in 1890 with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s Royal Blue. It featured menus by French-trained chefs, if not direct access to Manhattan—the train stopped in Jersey City, and passengers were then ferried across the Hudson River.
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