Did it seem equally absurd to build the East Coast - West Coast railroads in the 18xx? Only a small group of the Wild-West settler would benefit from it. And d

Did it seem equally absurd to build the East Coast - West Coast railroads in the 18xx? Only a small group of the Wild-West settler would benefit from it. And did it seem absurd 100 years ago to expect a nation-wide system of 55mph highways? I'm pretty sure that it did seem absurd, and yet we're all better off for it in the end. Transportation infrastructure has a huge long tail of benefits.