Author: lauren lavelle

Before the 1800s, Native Americans used the Navesink river as a source of food and means of transportation. Once settlers arrived in 1664, local seafood harvested from the river were transported into New York City. New York City was once the largest consumer of oysters in the world.

In the early 1800s, steamboats provided more efficient transportation. Over time, the Navesink River became a popular way of transportation for city-dwellers to travel to the Jersey Shore and towns on the Navesink River.

Railroad companies which owned the steamboats in the 1900s allowed Red Bank to become more populated. This expansion, however, increased pollution and loss of wildlife and fisheries.

By 1950s, new highways displaced steamboat travel and trade, and the river was primarily used for fishing and boating, but oystering had stopped.

Ferries on the Navesink

Steamboats of yesteryear burned coal.
Today, there are cleaner technologies we could recreate steamboats, but use more greenhouse friendly fuels like natural gas, or even run the steamboat on high tech batteries which are charged when the boat is at its berth.

Design developed by students of the MAST Class of 2019