Using a faster working and more efficient steam engine from mathematical instrument maker, John Watt, and entrepreneur, Matthew Boulton, Robert Fulton, an American inventor, built a steamboat called the Clermont in 1807. It ferried not only goods, but passengers up and down New York's Hudson River. By the mid 1800s, 4,250 miles of inland channels slashed the cost of transporting goods because of the advancement in water transportation.

The Clermont

Robert Fulton