6. The world’s first regularly operating commercial steam ferry connected Hoboken and New York City

Hoboken played a significant role in the development of the first steamboats, and the steamboat route from Hoboken to Manhattan was the world’s first regularly operating commercial steam ferry. According to the Hoboken Historical Museum, Colonel John Stevens legendarily spotted John Fitch’s experimental steamboat, which led him to investigate the boat and use these developments for the benefit of early Hoboken. Stevens received one of the nation’s first patents for an application of steam power. He demonstrated his Polacca steamboat, which carried passengers from Belleville, NJ, to New York City. Stevens’ children were brought in to help with the construction of the Little Juliana, which successfully navigated the Hudson River.

Stevens met Robert Fulton, widely credited with developing the world’s first commercially successful steamboat. After this meeting, Stevens put even more effort into designs for steamboats like the Phoenix, the first successful steamboat entirely constructed in America. Both Fulton and Robert Livingston aimed to compete with the Phoenix, which connected New York and New Brunswick, New Jersey. For just two years starting in 1811, Stevens launched a steam-ferry service from Hoboken to Manhattan that ran regularly, though it was shut down in 1813 due to pressure from Livingston, who had a monopoly with Fulton later struck down by the Supreme Court.