Today in History - October 7, 1816 - First double-decked steamboat, the Washington, arrives in New Orleans

Today in History - October 7, 1816, 

First double-decked steamboat, the Washington, arrives in New Orleans

On this day in 1816, a steamboat with a design that will soon prove ideal for western rivers arrives at the docks in New Orleans. The Washington was the work of a shipbuilder named Henry M. Shreve, who had launched the steamboat earlier that year on the Monongahela River just above Pittsburgh. Shreve's cleverly designedWashington had all the features that would soon come to characterize the classicMississippi riverboat: a two-story deck, a stern-mounted paddle wheel powered by a high-pressure steam engine, a shallow, flat-bottomed hull, and a pilothouse framed by two tall chimneys.

   

Perfectly designed for the often-shallow western rivers like the Mississippi and Missouri, the Washington proved itself on its inaugural voyage the following spring. 

Read more at: 

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-double-decked-steamboat-the-washington-arrives-in-new-orleans