transcontinental

Transcontinental is an adjective describing something that extends across or relates to more than one continent. In geography and transportation, the term is used to denote routes, networks, and activities that connect distant regions across continental distances.

Historical railways: The best-known example is the first Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, completed in 1869, which united the eastern and western rails by linking the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads and enabling coast-to-coast rail travel. Another prominent example is the Trans-Siberian Railway, a network that runs across the Asian landmass from Moscow to the Pacific coast and is among the longest railway routes in the world.

Other uses include air and road transport, such as transcontinental flights that cross a continent, and transcontinental highways like the Trans-Canada Highway, which spans from the Atlantic to the Pacific in Canada. In business and media, the term can refer to companies or outlets with operations on multiple continents.

Some political classifications also use transcontinental to describe states that hold territory on more than one continent, such as Russia and Turkey; Egypt is sometimes cited as transcontinental due to the Sinai Peninsula lying in Asia. The designation can be a matter of geographic convention and interpretation.