New Orleans, the first steamboat on western waters, was built at Pittsburghby Nicholas J. Roosevelt under patents held by Robert Fulton and Robert R. Livingston, during 1810–1811. A sidewheeler of between three hundred and four hundred tons, the New Orleans left Pittsburgh on 20 October 1811, braved the Falls of the Ohio and the New Madrid earthquake, and reached New Orleans 10 January 1812. It never returned to Pittsburgh, plying in the New Orleans–Natchez trade until snagged on 14 July 1814.
Bibliography
Petersen, William J. Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi. New York: Dover Publications, 1995.
