[citation needed] On January 4, 1891, the R&D launched the Washington & Southwestern Vestibuled Limited, the earliest direct ancestor of today's Crescent.

[1]: 21  According to an official history compiled by Southern Railway, it was promoted as "a service second to none in completeness and elegance of detail ... providing all the latest and best facilities for the comfort and enjoyment of its patrons.

Many passengers passed the time simply walking between cars "just to enjoy the unusual experience of being able to do so without having their hats blown away.

The route was then extended to New York (Jersey City before 1910) along the Pennsylvania Railroad's northeastern trunk line, now Northeast Corridor, via a connection in Washington with the Congressional Limited.

[4] On August 24, 1933, the southbound Crescent Limited derailed in Washington, D.C., on a bridge that had been damaged by the 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane the previous day.

With the discontinuance of the Humming Bird on January 9, 1969, it was run combined with the Pan-American south of Montgomery, leaving Atlanta at 7:15 p.m. on the old Piedmont Limited schedule.