RESOLVED, That the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads be directed
to consider the expediency of providing for an air-line railroad
between Washington and New York, which shall carry the mails of the
United States, and be free from all local impediments.
This resolution was objected to, and so was postponed; but its
immediate object was accomplished. The existing roads were
stimulated, and the attention of the country was called to
the idea of better communication between the two capitals of
politics and commerce. A French paper spoke of the proposed
road as “_atmospheric_.”
The resolution was renewed at the next session of Congress,
December 5, 1862, when it was agreed to.