Leg 4 - New Orleans, LA to Philadelphia, PA

The Crescent - Amtrak Train #20

Between the front door of America’s Eastern Seaboard, Amtrak’s famous Northeast Corridor, and the equally well known delights of America’s “Most Interesting City,” New Orleans, lays the authentic gateway to the American South and its living history. From twinkling Northeast cityscapes to shining Blue Ridge foothills to “new South” cities like Charlotte, Atlanta and Birmingham, to the Deep South and its shimmering, subtropical Louisiana swamp country – the Crescent shoots for its namesake moon and hits the stars as well. See the bombast of Broadway, the rich Civil War history of the South and the magic of the “Crescent City.” The Crescent doesn’t just promise the moon – it delivers! 

Today’s Crescent is the lineal descendent of the Washington and Southwestern Vestibuled Limited inaugurated in 1891 by the Richmond and Danville Railroad. Advertised as providing “a service second to none,” it carried drawing room and stateroom sleeping cars, dining cars, library and observation cars that were gas lighted and equipped with running water. Eventually the Southern Railway operated both the Southerner and the Crescent between New York City and New Orleans and the successor, the Southern Crescent. The Southern Crescent was a standout operation until the very end in 1979, when Amtrak took over the route and restored the historic Crescent name to the train.

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