This morning, I was thinking about inland cities in the Eastern US. Think of the Piedmont cities that are now among the fastest growing: Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh. Obviously, domestic rail travel would be the most efficient way of reaching these cities internally, but if you were a European who needed to travel to one of them, how would you reach them? Which ports along the coast had passenger traffic? Would berths on cargo ships have been used in lieu of dedicated passenger ships? How long would the trip take?
From 1816, when the Black Ball line was founded, until about 1850, a European traveler to America would have (if well off) probably taken a packet from Liverpool to New York (Boston and Philadelphia had packet services soon thereafter as well, but New York had the most), and then transhipped to Charleston or Savannah or Richmond, or New Orleans, thence by horse, rail (later) or steamboat (if destination was on a river) to the inland destination.
Although one could find ships from Europe to other American ports, the regularly scheduled and fast sailing packets were generally the best way to cross the Atlantic.
The fastest packet crossings from Europe to New York took 15 or 16 days. The slowest could take close to a month. The Black Ball line had 2 scheduled sailings every month from Liverpool, and there were other packet lines on the route as well. Times onward from New York were more problematical and one might have to wait for a suitable ship to depart unless there was a packet service from New York to your destination.
After about 1850, you would have taken a steam liner run by the Cunard line or by the Collins line, also probably to New York, and transhipped from there. At the time, the crossing by steam ship took about 9 or 10 days.