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In the 1700s, the journey across the Atlantic was safe.
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Before the 1800s, people travelled across the Atlantic Ocean in boats - sailing boats. The journeys often took many weeks and they were dangerous. In the 19th century, large ships began to cross the Atlantic. The journey’s weren’t so dangerous and they usually took several days, not weeks. An American ship called United States made a world-record journey in 1952 - crossing the Atlantic in three days, then hours and 40 minutes.
In 1919, a British plane became the first plane to cross the Atlantic without stopping. The journey took about 16 hours. In 1927, the first passenger plane went across the ocean and in the 1930s, Germany started flying planes across the Atlantic with 60 passengers at a time.
Now, about 600 planes travel across the Atlantic every day and the average flight time from London to New York is six hours and 30 minutes. There are plans for a tunnel so people can travel by train under the Atlantic. They are only plans now - but who knows about the future?