"This is an old craft and we are an old house, " says Mr. Robert.

WSJ: Man of Stones

Though the first steamboats appeared as early as 1783, Fulton showed little interest in the craft until 1802 when, at a soiree thrown by the Barlows, he met Robert Livingston, a patrician New Yorker who held a 20-year monopoly on steamboat transport in New York State.

FORBES: The Love Boat