This is in the Wells Fargo headquarters in downtown San Francisco.
Wells Fargo began in San Francisco during the gold rush. It acted as a bank and delivery service for miners looking to strike literal gold.
It cost quite a lot of money to transport goods before railroads. In 1867, it would have cost $300 — $7,352 in 2015 dollars — to ride the stagecoach from Sacramento to Omaha, according to an advertisement from the era.
Wells Fargo was able to transfer money and goods quickly and reliably using the stagecoaches. The bank claims that its coaches were made using only the finest materials of the time.
The main builder of these stagecoaches, Abbot & Downing Co., hand assembled the coaches from a variety of woods and rimmed the wheels with iron. It created a suspension system of leather to make the ride more comfortable for passengers crossing deserts and mountains.…
When workers were done with the stagecoaches, they would weigh 2,500 pounds, about as much as a 2016 Toyota Prius C.
The stagecoaches covered 3,000 miles from the West Coast to Nebraska. Once railroads spanning the width of the country were introduced in 1869, stagecoaches began falling out of fashion. They continued serving areas not reachable by rail after that, and Wells Fargo spun off its delivery company in 1905.…
