All Aboard The Lindbergh Line

All Aboard The Lindbergh Line has its fair share of ups and downs-or more accurately take offs and landings. It's the story of a young girl's travels aboard Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT, for short). TAT was the first commercial airline to carry passengers across the United States in 48 hours-by plane and train.

TAT began its innovative cross-country transportation service in 1929 under the direction of Charles Lindbergh, who two years earlier made an historic flight from New York to Paris. TAT carried passengers between New York and California in airplanes by day and in trains by night. Doing so, it provided a unique solution to a transportation problem at a time when airlines did not carry passengers at night because airplanes lacked the essential navigational equipment needed for safe night flight.

TAT's air-and-rail service operated only sixteen months, a victim of the economic depression of 1929 as well as technological advances in aviation that eventually made night flight possible. While most people may never have heard of TAT, those who were lucky enough to travel aboard TAT never forgot the experience.