Night Boats to Newport

The Fall River Line, which operated a year-round overnight passenger steamboat service between New York, Newport and Fall River, Mass., from 1847 to 1937, called itself “the most famous inland water travel route in America.” That was probably no exaggeration. Noted for their reliability, impressive size and sumptuous public rooms, the company’s elegant white steamers offered a means of transportation befitting the Gilded Age that drew the patronage of many of the most powerful and prominent people in the country, as well as ordinary folks. So embedded was the Fall River Line in the national culture that when it ceased operating, The New York Times said it was “an American story which should not be forgotten.”