Model of John Fitch’s Steamboat
Steamboat, invented by John Fitch, successfully worked in 1787. Fitch demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River before members of the Constitutional Convention. Children could learn more at: John Fitch.
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.