But it was in 1869 that the Pullman car made perhaps its greatest advance in the interest and confidence of the public for in that year the Union Pacific, building westward from the Missouri River at Omaha, met the Central Pacific, which built from San Francisco eastward. By their union a line was established between the two coasts of the continent, a slender thread of track which stretched for 1,848 miles through a practically uninhabited country. Almost simultaneously with the completion of the road there was put upon the rails one of the most superb trains ever turned out of the Pullman shops. Its journey to California and its reception there were in the nature of a progressive ovation. From that time forth the great population of the Pacific coast knew no train for long distance travel save a Pullman train, and would hear of no other. When people from California reached Chicago on their way eastward, the road over which Pullman cars ran got their patronage, and roads over which other cars were operated did not. Newspapers and magazines were awakened to studies of the Pullman cars and the Pullman system, and scores of printed pages were filled with the marvels of a journey to the Pacific Ocean which was nothing more than a six days' sojourn in a luxurious hotel, past the windows of which there constantly flowed a great panorama of the American continent, thousands of miles in length and as wide as the eye could reach. Illustrated magazine articles which appeared telling the story of a trip to California had as many pictures of Pullman interiors as they had of the big trees or the Yosemite Valley. The effect of all this was far reaching. The great Pennsylvania line abandoned its own service and adopted the Pullman, and many other lines made application for inclusion in the Pullman system.

In May, 1870, the first through train from the Atlantic to the Pacific crossed the continent, engaged for a special excursion by the Boston Board of Trade, many distinguished Bostonians being numbered among the passengers. During the trip a daily newspaper entitled the Trans-Continental was published. In the issue of May 31, published on the sixth day out, as the train was crossing the summit of the Sierra Nevadas, an account is given of a meeting of the passengers in the smoking car, and resolutions passed by them were printed. The Hon. Alex H. Rice presided at the meeting, and the resolutions were offered by Frank H. Peabody, a Boston banker, and seconded by Robert B. Forbes, another Bostonian.

Resolved, That we, the passengers of the Boston Board of Trade Pullman excursion train, the first through train from the Atlantic to the Pacific, having now been a week en route for San Francisco, and having had, during this period, ample opportunity to test the character and quality of the accommodations supplied for our journey, hereby express our entire satisfaction with the arrangements made by Mr. George M. Pullman, and our admiration of the skill and energy which have resulted in the construction, equipment and general management of this beautiful and commodious moving hotel.

Resolved, That we return our cordial thanks to Mr. Pullman for the very great pains taken by him beforehand to make the present journey safe and pleasurable; that we recognize the complete success which has followed all his efforts, and that we extend to him our sincere wishes for such a degree of prosperity to attend all his operations as will be proportionate to his merits as one of the most public-spirited, sagacious, and liberal railroad men of the present day.

Resolved, That we take pleasure in witnessing, as we journey from point to point, through all the Western States, the many evidences of Mr. Pullman's enterprise and the extent of his operations in the cars which we meet belonging to the Pullman Company, attached to the regular trains for the use of the public, or appropriated especially to private excursion parties, and we earnestly hope that there will be no delay in placing the elegant and homelike carriages upon the principal routes in the New England States, and we will do all in our power to accomplish this end.

The list of passengers on this notable excursion included:

In the next few years the Pullman Palace Car Company established manufacturing shops in Detroit, and in 1875 a new "reclining-chair car," the first parlor car to be operated in the United States, was presented by Mr. Pullman to the public. For several years parlor cars of Pullman design and construction had been in satisfactory use on the Midland Railway, between London and Liverpool, England. The success of these cars promptly resulted in the construction of the "Maritana" for use in the United States. The chairs in this new car were heavily and richly upholstered and revolved on a swivel, on the same principle as the chairs in the parlor car of the present day.

The first parlor car, 1875