Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Departure from New York

When
6 October 1848
Where
New York Harbor
Part of
SS California arrives in San Francisco Bay, opening regular transcontinental steamship service

The SS California left New York Harbor on 6 October 1848 with a partial passenger load, beginning its long voyage to the West Coast.

The vessel departed New York Harbor on 6 October 1848, carrying approximately 60 saloon and 150 steerage passengers. This departure marked the start of the journey that would establish regular steamship service between the coasts.

Sources

  1. SS California (1848) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-12
  2. Steamship Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-21

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.