Trick question.
Of course not. None of us were around in 1800 .
Cool chart below from FlowingData.com …. reporting Census Bureau data massaged by researchers at the Univ. of Nebraska.
With NYC pegged as the destination, the isolines show how long it took to get from wherever to NYC.
Chicago is on the 6-week isoline.
Ouch.
* * * * *
The bigger question: why did it take so damn long?
The Homa Files 