The Belle of Louisville, built in 1914, is the oldest operating “western rivers” steamboat. It has the shallow-draft flat-bottom hull braced by hog-chain trusses, multiple fire-tube boilers, paddlewheel propulsion, and superstructure configuration that were characteristic of hundreds of steamboats that plied America’s rivers during the 19th and 20th centuries
Innovation designated by: 
Courtesy Flickr/Bailey Visual Life (CC BY 2.0)
Belle of Louisville, still in operation
Address:
Louisville, KY, USA
38.254167, -85.760278
