Winning the government contract to transport mail from New York to San Francisco, Pacific Mail (predecessor to APL) commissioned a grand sidewheel steamer for the arduous journey. Built in May 1848, she left New York that October and 144 days later arrived in San Francisco.
The California was the very first steamship to enter San Francisco Bay, and would be forever linked to the great California Gold Rush. For several years, she transported goods, mail and seekers of fortune on one of the most modern ships of the day.
A few years later, to speed the journey, one of the world’s first intermodal routes was created by Pacific Mail’s founder, William Aspinwall. One vessel would ply from New York to Panama, where passengers and cargo would be offboarded and transported across the Isthmus by mule or train. They would then board another vessel for the Panama to San Francisco run.
This sea-land-sea connection dropped the transit time to just 21 days from more than 140 and was the precursor to the development of the Panama Canal
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