Day By Day reports Mark Twain's departure for St. Louis on March 3, 1867 was snowy. The date, time and railroad are confirmed in the Mark Twain Project explanatory notes for a letter to Charles Henry Webb on March 19, 1867. [ SLC to Charles Henry Webb, 19 March 1867., St. Louis, Mo. ] That he returned to New York on the same route is confirmed in a letter to Jane Lampton Clemens on April 15, 1867. [ SLC to Jane Lampton Clemens and Family, 15 Apr 1867., New York, N.Y.]
Little Miami The Little Miami RR ran from the eastern side of Cincinnati to Springfield, Ohio. By merging with the Columbus and Xenia Railroad in 1853, it created the first through-rail route from Cincinnati to the state capital, Columbus.
Ohio and Mississippi The Ohio and Mississippi RR operated between Cincinnati, Ohio, and East St. Louis, Illinois, from 1857 to 1893. The railroad paralleled the Cincinnati and Whitewater Canal. Its East St. Louis terminal near the Mississippi River was completed in 1857. It was a founding rail line of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis.
Pennsylvania From Pittsburgh to Conshohocken, the Pennsylvania RR. In 1852, a continuous railroad line ran between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh over the tracks of several entities. By 1854, the Pennsy completed its line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, eliminating the use of the inclined planes of the Allegheny Portage Railroad.
Philadelphia and Reading From Conshohocken to Philadelphia, the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road, chartered April 4, 1833, to build a line between Philadelphia and Reading, along the Schuylkill River. The full line opened December 9, 1839.
Philadelphia and Trenton The Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad, chartered on February 23, 1832, opened in 1834 from Philadelphia to Trenton. In 1836, the Camden and Amboy Railroad began to operate the P&T, after obtaining a controlling stock interest.
Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cincinnati From Columbus to Steubenville, on the Ohio River, the Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cincinnati RR. The full Pittsburgh and Steubenville RR opened October 9, 1865, from Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh west to Wheeling Junction at the east end of the Steubenville Railroad Bridge. That same day, the Steubenville Railroad Bridge opened over the Ohio River, as did the connection at Pittsburgh, connecting the Pennsylvania Railroad with the P&S via the Monongahela River Bridge (commonly called the Panhandle Bridge) and Grant's Hill Tunnel. From then until 1868, the line was operated as the Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad by the Western Transportation Company.
Pittsburgh to Steubenville; The line plotted here is actually from the USGS quads for Carnegie Quad, 1904; Burgettstown Quad, 1904; and Steubenville Quad, 1904. The precise route has not been determined. The University of Nebraska 1870 kml files indicate the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago RR to Beaver, then the Cleveland and Pittsburgh to East Liverpool or Yellow Creek; then an unnamed line to Steubenville.