A Trip From San Francisco to New York

The USA is a country of great differences. There are high mountains and flat prairies, tropical heat and arctic cold.

If you want to go from San Francisco to New York by train, you must travel more than three thousand miles. It takes about three days and nights. In California, where you begin your trip, the climate is usually mild all year. In the south of the state is a famous fruit-growing area. California oranges, grapefruit, lemons, and many other fruits and vegetables are sent all over the United States and to other countries.

Soon the train leaves the green plains and goes up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains covered with snow. Here and there, you can see clear mountain lakes. As the train goes east, you cross the Salt Lake Desert.

For miles and miles, you will see nothing but salt. Flat plains covered with short dry grass go on and on. This is sheep and cattle country, the land of the cowboys. As you cross it, you may wonder where the people of America are. From time to time, you may see a few cattle on the plain or the wagon of a cowboy, but most of the land is empty.

As the train crosses Nebraska, you leave the empty country and enter the rich farming region of America. Nebraska has many golden wheat fields. In Iowa, wheat and corn are important products. After two days, the train arrives in Chicago, the second largest city in the United States.

Then you cross Pennsylvania and New Jersey — the richest industrial states in the country — and at last arrive in New York, the largest city in the USA. The trip will not show you all of America, of course. Each region has its own characteristics. There are many large and modern cities, but a great part of the country consists of wide plains with farmhouses and small towns. The typical town in any part of the United States has its “main street” with similar shops and markets selling the same products. So many American towns look very much alike.