In 1817, a year after his election, Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins developed the first motorized ferry for the Richmond Turnpike Company, as a part of his created Tompkinsville. He financed the Turnpike Company himself. Tompkins first intensions was to create a highway across Staten Island. Before the motorized ferry, there were originally "two-masted sailingboats."
John De Forest was the first captain of this new motorized ferry, name the Nautilus, named after the Nautilus Hall. De Forest was the brother-in-law of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt bought the company in 1838 but sold it to his brother Jacob in the early 1860's when the American Civil War began.
Posted by Tom Crimmins Realty, Ltd. on
Leave A Comment