ferry
ferry, a place where passengers, freight, or vehicles are carried by boat across a river, lake, arm of the sea, or other body of water. The term applies both to the place where the crossing is made and to the boat used for the purpose. By extension of the original meaning, ferry also denotes a short overwater flight by an airplane carrying passengers or freight or the flying of planes from one point to another as a means of delivering them.
Perhaps the most prominent early use of the term appears in Greek mythology, where Charon the ferryman carried the souls of the dead across the River Styx. Ferries were of great importance in ancient and medieval history, and their importance has persisted into the modern era. Before engineers learned to build permanent bridges over large bodies of water or construct tunnels under them, ferries offered the only means of crossing. Ferries include a wide variety of vessels, from the simplest canoes or rafts to large motor-driven ferries capable of carrying trucks and railway cars across vast expanses of water. The term is frequently used in combination with other words, as in the expressions train ferry, car ferry, and channel ferry.
In the early history of the United States, the colonists found that the coasts of the New World were broken by great bays and inlets and that the interior of the continent was divided by rivers that defied bridging for many generations. Crossing these rivers and bays was a necessity, however. At first, small boats propelled by oars or poles were the most common form of ferry. They were replaced later by large flatboats propelled by a form of long oar called a sweep. Sails were used when conditions were favourable and in some rivers the current itself provided the means of propulsion.
Horses were used on some ferries to walk a treadmill geared to paddle wheels; in others, horses were driven in a circle around a capstan that hauled in ropes and towed the ferry along its route. The first steam ferryboat in the United States was operated by John Fitch on the Delaware River in 1790, but it was not financially successful. The advent of steam power greatly improved ferryboats; they became larger, faster, and more reliable and began to take on a design different from other steamers. At cities divided by a river and where hundreds of people and many horse-drawn wagons had to cross the river daily, the typical U.S. ferryboat took shape. It was a double-ended vessel with side paddle wheels and a rudder and pilothouse on both ends. The pilothouses were on an upper deck, and the lower deck was arranged to hold as many vehicles as possible. A narrow passageway ran along each side of the lower deck with stairways to give passengers access to the upper deck. The engine was of the walking beam type with the beam mounted on a pedestal so high that it was visible above the upper deck.
Terminals to accommodate such ferries were built at each end of their routes. In order to dock promptly and permit wheeled vehicles to move on and off quickly, a platform with one end supported by a pivot on land and the other end supported by floats in the water was sometimes provided. As roads improved and the use of automobiles and large motor trucks increased, ferries became larger and faster, but the hull arrangement remained the same. High-speed steam engines with propellers on both ends of the ferry were used. Steam engines gave way to diesel engines, diesel-electric drives, and, in some cases, hovercraft. Several states organized commissions which took over ferries from private ownership and operated them for the public; these commissions frequently also operated bridges, public roads, and vehicular tunnels. Increase in the use of motor vehicles so overtaxed many ferries that they could not handle the load. As a result, more bridges and tunnels were built, and ferries began to disappear, but their use on some inland rivers and lakes still continues. Commuter ferries remained popular in densely populated coastal communities.