From the time he was young, Robert Fulton liked to work with his hands. For a while, he thought he wanted to be an artist. But it was a hard way to make a living. So he turned to inventing things. One was a very early version of the submarine. Fulton is most famous for building the first practical steamboat. Others had tried and failed. Fulton was successful. His vessel was called the North River Steam Boat. It sailed regularly between New York City and Albany, the capital of New York. The success of the North River Steam Boat inspired Fulton to build other steamboats. Soon he became a very wealthy man.
