The Robert E. Lee and the Golden Age of Steamboats

Before highways crossed the nation and trains raced across the land, the Mississippi River was America's greatest road; and steamboats ruled its waters. Among them, one vessel rose above the rest. Built for speed and driven by ambition, the Robert E. Lee became a legend when she raced more than a thousand miles upriver from New Orleans to St. Louis, capturing the attention of a nation and setting a record that would echo through history.
Crowds gathered along riverbanks, newspapers tracked every mile, and the Mississippi itself became a stage for one of the most famous contests of the steamboat era.