Steamboat Travel

STEAMBOAT TRAVEL IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Steamboats played a major role in 19th century development of the Mississippi River by transporting large scale passangers and cargo up and down river

It was part of the "Transportation Revolution" and helped in the US expansion to the West

This is a photo of the first Mississipi Steamboat, The New Orleans or Orleans,it launched in 1811

Steamboats were also widely used during the Civil War. This is a painting of steamboats being used during the Battle of Fort Hindman

Although steamboats ruled trade andtravel in the 1800s and early 1900s, theywere eventually replaced by newer forms oftransportation

In the twentiethcentury, with the invention of cars, trucks,and airplanes, steamboats became obsolete,and most were retired.

The first commercially successful steamboat, Robert Fulton’s Clermont, plied the Hudson River starting in 1807.