Art and Commerce in Jacksonian America: The Steamboat Albany Collection

Increased competition led to faster service. Before the Hudson River was opened to competition, Livingston-Fulton boats had taken at least sixteen hours to complete a trip between New York and Albany. In the wake of Gibbons v. Ogden, competitors reduced travel time by introducing faster boats and limiting the number of stops. By 1826, the best boats were completing the trip in eleven to fourteen hours.

Shorter trips encouraged product specialization. Because they could not complete the trip in daylight, all Livingston-Fulton boats had been outfitted with private sleeping compartments. These were located along the outer sides of the larger cabins, so they reduced both the size of those spaces and the amount of light that penetrated them. Reductions in travel time enabled operators to introduce separate lines of day and night boats. The first regularly scheduled day boat was the Sun, which began offering daytime service between New York and Albany in May 1826. Night boats saved travelers the cost of lodging in New York or Albany, but many business travelers and almost all pleasure travelers preferred day boats because they afforded what one advertisement described as the "gratification of viewing the beautiful and sublime scenery of the Hudson by day light." In addition, vacationers and other travelers who disembarked between New York and Albany generally found that traveling by day improved their chances of reaching their final lodgings before nightfall. Since day boats did not offer sleeping accommodations, their cabins could be made larger, airier, and more elegant. [22]

The Stevenses, one of the wealthiest families in the Northeast, expanded into the Hudson River market methodically and forcefully. Colonel Stevens and his second son Robert Livingston Stevens were two of the most innovative and influential transportation engineers in the history of the early republic. From the time they decided to enter the Hudson River market, they sought to dominate it by introducing boats that were larger, safer, and faster than any the competition could muster. [23] The family's first Hudson River boat was the New Philadelphia, built for use on the Delaware River and shifted to the Hudson River in late August 1826. Because the Stevenses did not have another boat available for use on the Hudson, they initially operated the New Philadelphia as a solo boat departing either New York or Albany every morning except Monday at six o'clock. Newspaper advertisements announcing the new service boasted that the New Philadelphia's "cabins are light[,] airy, and spacious, elegantly fitted up with maho gany, maple and marble, her dining cabin is 44 by 22 feet, and decorated with a variety of paintings." The Albany was the Stevenses' second Hudson River boat. Specifically designed to serve as a Hudson River dayboat, the Albany was completed in late March 1827 and put into service in early April. The Stevenses operated the New Philadelphia and Albany as a team, with one of them departing from either New York or Albany every morning except Monday. The pairing of the Albany with the New Philadelphia established the Stevenses as the dominant day boat operators on the Hudson. [24] One year after they introduced the Albany, the Stevenses consolidated their competitive advantage by replacing the New Philadelphia with a new, bigger, and faster boat named the North America and turning the New Philadelphia into a Hudson River night boat. Unlike the New Philadelphia and Albany, both of which had been constructed in Philadelphia, the North America was built in Robert Livingston Stevens's own shipyard at Hoboken. Contemp orary newspapers reported that the North America was the largest and most technologically advanced boat on the Hudson River, able to complete the New York--Albany run in as little as ten hours. A period lithograph showing the two Stevens day boats as they appeared in 1828 suggests the speed with which technological innovations were being introduced. In the engraving (as it did in reality), the sleek North America seems to be overtaking the dark and squat Albany (Fig. 6). [25]