Big Apple History . Early New York . The Invention of the Steamboat


	Steamboat on the Hudson

In the 1790s, a wealthy judge in New York named Robert R. Livingston wanted to find a faster way to travel between Manhattan and his country estate, 110 miles up the Hudson River. At that time, transportation on the river was limited to sailboats. Livingston dreamed of inventing a boat powered by steam. Unfortunately, Livingston wasn't much of an inventor, and all his steamboat attempts failed.

A few years later President Jefferson sent Livingston to France. While there, Livingston met Robert Fulton, a talented engineer, and hired him to invent a steamboat. Fulton's first experimental steamboat sailed down the Seine River in 1803. After this success, Livingston and Fulton started to construct a steamboat in New York.

In 1807, Fulton's steamboat was completed. Crowds cheered as his ship hissed its way up the Hudson, traveling at an average speed of 4.5 miles per hour. A few weeks later, Fulton's "North River Steamboat" offered regular trips on the Hudson.

Illustration: "Robert Fulton's 'Clermont' on the Hudson," 1813, Courtesy of the L.N. Phelps Stokes Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.