Steamboats but not the Washington
Double-decked steamboat arrived in New Orleans for the first time in 1816. The Washington traveled between New Orleans and Louisville. It traveled upstream at 16 miles per hour and downstream at 25 miles per hour. This first steamboat was so successful that many others followed. By 1850 about 740 steamboats, transporting three million people annually, traveled on the Mississippi River. Older children could read a great history of double-decked steamboats at: Double-Decked Steamboats.