From the Center of America: Steamboats and Shipyards Along the Lower Ohio River

Before the railroad stitched together the American landscape, the dominant mode of transportation in the United States was by steamboat. These grand vessels, their iconic paddlewheels churning the country’s rivers, have long captured the national imagination as symbols of innovation and adventure.

In the heart of America, four major rivers converge—the Cumberland and Tennessee with the Ohio; then the Ohio with the Mississipp...