08/14/2026
James Bard (American, 1815-1897) The Hudson River Steamer Sylvan Dell
The remarkably handsome Sylvan Dell, with a speed more than 20 mph, built by Lawrence and Foulks in 1872 carried on her bow mast an unusual but significant flag – a racehorse with a jockey instead of the name of the boat
The Sylvan Dell was the last and the finest and fastest of the five steamboats built for the Harlem & New York Navigation Company which was incorporated in 1856. She was a 440-ton, single stack steam and paddle boat that measured 178 feet long and 27 feet wide. On her maiden voyage in 1872, she steamed upriver from New York to Albany, without passengers or stops, in a record seven hours, 43 minutes, becoming the fastest boat on the Hudson River.
The Sylvan Dell generally carried commuters between Harlem and lower Manhattan, however, with the opening of the Third Avenue Elevated Railroad in 1883, the company discontinued the service and sold its boats. The riverboat then offered New Yorkers pleasure excursions until 1889. The Sylvan Dell was sold again and ferried commuters between Philadelphia and Salem, NJ, on the Delaware River. In 1919, she sank in Salem Creek.
