Steamboats changed the westward expansion and made people get to Oregon 5x faster than traveling by wagon train.
Also steamboats were the first boats to travel up stream.
Steamboats made travel faster easier and better. I think the reason why, steamboats are the best invention is because it helped religons to expand to different parts of the US and even though steamboats are not really used like they were in the 1900's but they are still used for joy rides.
Credits:
Created with images by cocoparisienne - "nile egypt river" • ralph - "beautiful steam ship paddle steamer steamboat" • ralph - "beautiful steam ship paddle steamer steamboat" • jour-reveur - "steamboat steamer ship" • jgerim - "steam boat river lake" • MemoryCatcher - "paddle boat steamer ss sicamous"