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Home > Libraries > Special Collections > Teaching and Learning Resources > Primary Source Sets and Lesson Plans > Primary Source Sets > Transportation > River

River (ferryboats, steamboats, tugboats, wharf buildings)

For two hundred years the Ohio River has served as a main conduit for travel from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, Louisville, and the Mississippi River. With the building of the first Mississippi packet steamboat in 1811 at Pittsburgh, commercial transportation of passengers and freight on the river began. By the Civil War, smaller versions of the great packet boats had penetrated most of the Ohio’s tributaries. Lumber, freight, passengers, cattle and harvested crops were all being moved by boat. The peak of passenger travel on steamboats was in the Victorian period of 1870 to 1900. As railroads were completed to Huntington, Wheeling, and Cincinnati, the packet boats arranged their schedules to connect with the passenger trains, thus allowing a passenger to travel to most cities in the Ohio and Mississippi basins with relative ease. Just as the train engines were powered by a coal-fired boiler, the packet steamboat was also steam driven. By the 1920’s as roads were improved and the automobile became more than just a novelty, the days of luxury travel by steamboat were numbered. Today the Ohio still enjoys river traffic, the bulk of which consists of diesel-powered towboats pushing coal barges, and the occasional river fan trip on the few true remaining steamboats.
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  • Steamboat Virginia by Marshall University

    Steamboat Virginia

  • Steamboat Virginia by Marshall University

    Steamboat Virginia

  • Steamboat Virginia by Marshall University

    Steamboat Virginia

  • Steam towboat Boaz by Marshall University

    Steam towboat Boaz

  • Steam towboat Defender pushing coal barges by Marshall University

    Steam towboat Defender pushing coal barges

  • Steam towboat E. R. Andrews by Marshall University

    Steam towboat E. R. Andrews

  • Steam towboat Monie Bauer by Marshall University

    Steam towboat Monie Bauer

  • Steam towboat pushing log raft on Tug River by Marshall University

    Steam towboat pushing log raft on Tug River

  • Steam towboat Sea Lion by Marshall University

    Steam towboat Sea Lion

  • Steam towboats pushing log rafts, presumed to be on Ohio River by Marshall University

    Steam towboats pushing log rafts, presumed to be on Ohio River

  • The steamboat Argand by Marshall University

    The steamboat Argand

  • Two steamboats at the Ashland Coal Works by Marshall University

    Two steamboats at the Ashland Coal Works

  • Two steamboats docked at a wharf by Marshall University

    Two steamboats docked at a wharf

  • Unidentified steamboat interior by Marshall University

    Unidentified steamboat interior

  • Unidentified steamboat wreck by Marshall University

    Unidentified steamboat wreck

  • Unidentified steam towboat wreck by Marshall University

    Unidentified steam towboat wreck

  • Packet steamboat Bostona by Marshall University

    Packet steamboat Bostona

  • Packet steamboat Bostona by Marshall University

    Packet steamboat Bostona

  • Sidewheel batwing boat J. C. Hopkins No.2 pushing log rafts by Marshall University

    Sidewheel batwing boat J. C. Hopkins No.2 pushing log rafts

  • Steamboat Beulah Brown by Marshall University

    Steamboat Beulah Brown

  • Steam towboat Beulah Brown by Marshall University

    Steam towboat Beulah Brown

  • Steamboat, Smokey City, on the Ohio River by Thornton Barrett

    Steamboat, Smokey City, on the Ohio River

  • The Catlettsburg, Kentucky wharfboat, the Maxie Yost by Marshall University

    The Catlettsburg, Kentucky wharfboat, the Maxie Yost

  • Catlettsburg, Kentucky wharfboat, Maxie Yost by Marshall University

    Catlettsburg, Kentucky wharfboat, Maxie Yost

  • Steamboat Telegraph by Marshall University

    Steamboat Telegraph

 
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