On this day, September 15, 1858, the new Overland Mail Company sent its first two stages, inaugurating government mail service between the eastern and western regions of the nation.
Americans east and west had been clamoring for faster and surer transcontinental mail service for years. In March 1857, the U.S Congress passed an act authorizing an overland mail delivery service and a $600,000 yearly subsidy for whatever company could succeed in reliably transporting the mail twice a week from St. Louis to San Francisco in less than 25 days. Later other faster mail delivery services came into existence.
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