Amelia Earhart christening the “City of New York”, 1929

Photo Credit: The Henry Ford

Amelia Earhart christening the “City of New York” before its first transcontinental air transport flight in New York City, 1929. Amelia Earhart, already famous for the 1928 flight that made her the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, helped inaugurate transcontinental airline service in 1929. She posed with a Ford Tri-Motor at New York City’s Pennsylvania Station. This early service had passengers traveling by train at night, and by airplane during daylight. Total travel time to California was 51 hours.