It may be hard today—in a world of space shuttles and supersonic transports—to imagine steamboats at the vanguard of transportation technology. Yet in the middle of the last century steamboats offered the fastest way to travel from booming Buffalo to the port of Chicago. Nonstop, the trip would take three days one way, traveling at top speeds of 15 miles per hour. However, stopping at ports along the way often extended the journey to four or five days. The Niagara spent most of its life running between these bustling ports, making the 2,000-mile round trip once every two weeks.

The Niagara was built in 1846 for Charles M. Reed, the grandson of a colonel who fought in the American Revolution at Bunker Hill. Reed was a business tycoon in Erie, Pennsylvania, and owned the largest shipping fleet on the Great Lakes. When he set out to build the Niagara, cost was no obstacle. Reed contracted with the shipyard of Bidwell and Banta to build the palace steamer, spending $95,000 (1846 dollars) to accomplish the endeavor. The machinery was built by the engine works of the highly regarded James P. Allaire, a close associate of Robert Fulton, the famous pioneer of early steamboats, for a cost of $32,000.

Read the tale of the Niagara's final voyage