good deal at the idea and called the boat "Fulton's Folly." In August,
1807, the Clermont was finished, and a crowd gathered to see it launched
and to laugh at its failure. But the boat moved out into the stream and
up the Hudson River, while the people gazed in wonder at the marvellous
thing gliding through the water, moved apparently by some more than
human force. It went all the way to Albany, and from that day on
continued to make trips up and down the river. This was the first
successful steam-boat in the world. Soon steam ferry-boats took the
place of those which had been driven by horse-power. Quickly, too, after
the success of the Clermont, steam navigation went rapidly forward on
both sides of the ocean. Fulton made other and much better boats. Other
men followed in his footsteps, and the great ocean liners of to-day are
one of the results.




CHAPTER XXXVI

THE CITY PLAN


It is interesting at this time to read how the streets came to be just
where they are. The city was growing more rapidly than ever and the
streets and byways met one another at every sort of angle, forming a
tangled maze. To remedy this, a commission was formed of several of the
prominent citizens to determine just what course the streets should
take. Now this commission decided not to interfere with those that
existed, but to map out the island above the city and plan for those
that were to be. They worked for four years and then submitted, in the