An effect of steamboat´s popularity was that it carried people and goods to faraway places where it was not possible to go easily before the invention of the steamboat.
The steamboats could travel at the speed of up to five miles per hour. Although there were some little differences, they all shared a basic design. They had a hull or body made of timber and a wooden paddlewheel.
It is also important to mention the dangers of river travel. The biggest danger that steamboats faced was boiler explosion. In relation to that, one of the worst disasters ever recorded was that of General Slocum, which exploded killing 958 people.