Vol. XXII. No. 48. Devoted to the Marine Profession, Yachting and Commercial Interests. Official Organ of the Western Rivers' Ferry Owners' Association.
United States Engineer Department. Placing abatis dike to close gap in driven pile dike. In chute between Establishment Island and Missouri shore near Brickeys.
Built Pittsburgh, 1811, Length, 138 ft. 371 tons. Robert Fulton's financial success on the Hudson gave him funds to fulfill a second ambition, which John Fitch had also held: introduction of steamboats on the Western Waters, to us the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Fulton sent Nicholas Roosevelt, another steamboat experimenter, to Pittsburgh to build the New Orleans, first steamer to operate west of the Allegheny Mountains. Little information on the New Orleans has survived. There is even some question whether she was a sidewheeler or a sternwheeler. Her first voyage took place in 1811, when she left Pittsburgh in October, doubled back from Louisville to Cincinnati to prove she could run against the current, and reached New Olreans in January, 1812. For the 1911 centennial celebration of this event, a sidewheel replica of the New Orleans was built. It is shown in this photograph. The original boat plied the Lower Mississippi until 1814, when she hit a snag and sank.
Photograph of Lucas Gardens Park looking Southeast towards the St. Louis Public Library building. Christ Church Cathedral is visible to the left of the library.
The Vim was originally built as the Hattie Brown, a single deck sternwheeler at Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania in 1895. Her dimensions were:- 125 x 22.6 x 4.3 feet. She was built for J. W. Rice of Zanesville, Ohio and her engines came from the Lizzie Cassel. They were 12's with a 4-foot stroke. She ran various short trades on the Ohio River. The Hattie Brown was rebuilt at Jeffersonville, Indiana in 1915 and renamed the Vim. She was owned by the Louisville and Cincinnati Packet Company. The Vim came out in June, 1919 for the Madison and Kentucky River trade. In August 1919 her name was changed to Richard Roe. In March, 1921 she was in the Madison and Monterey trade, Kentucky River. Later Captain Lewis Tanner bought and used her for towing.
This photograph shows of a truck driving in the snow across the Free Bridge (now the MacArthur Bridge), into the city from Illinois. The exit is now near 6th Street., This is a wider view of another photograph in the collection.
Photograph of Mogul Sprinkling Truck. The city contracted with private companies like F. A. Stiers to sprinkle water on the city streets on a regular basis to keep down the dirt., St. Louis was the first city in the United States to use auto-sprinkling trucks like this. One of these Mogul trucks could sprinkle 22 miles of street from curb to curb in 11 hours.
Corps of Engineers Snagboat Missouri on Mo. River, 1912. Burned at Gasconade Mo. July 28, 1928. Was sunk behind dike about 2 miles below Gasconade, Dec. 1929. Winter ice breakup broke hole in dike. March 1930, channel was through hole. March 15, 1930, Dredge Kappa, hit and sank on top, Snagboat Missouri. George Kishmar.
The Virginia operated in the Pittsburgh-Cincinnatti trade along with the Keystone State, the Iron Queen, the Scotia, the Carrollton, the Hudson and the Queen City. She was owned by the Pittsburgh and Cincinnatti Packet Company. Her career seemed to have been a hectic one. In 1910 high water from the Kanawha River left her stranded up in a field a hundred yards from the river, high and dry in Pomeroy Bend for a whole summer. The owner got tired waiting for another flood, and after three months set to work, dug a little canal, floated the old boat down to the Howard's repair yards. And in a few weeks she was going about her business as though nothing had happened. This was one of the best known accidents on the Mississippi system. Later her name was changed to Steel City; still later it was changed to the East St. Louis. Under her last name of Greater New Orleans she operated as an excursion steamer on the Mississippi, and fire finally destroyed her.