Fulton's Steamboat Leaves NYC for Albany: The Age of Steam Travel
Robert Fulton's steamboat left New York City and headed north up the Hudson River toward Albany — 150 miles. Crowds on the banks watched and laughed. Some called it Fulton's Folly. The Clermont completed the trip in 32 hours. A sailing sloop would have taken four days. The skeptics went quiet. Within a decade, steamboats were everywhere — rivers, lakes, coastal routes. The steam engine didn't just move boats faster. It turned rivers into highways and made the interior of continents commercially viable for the first time.
August 17, 1807
219 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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