Journalist Erik Hesselberg has covered Connecticut’s waterways for decades. This hour, we preview his new book about the vibrant history of steamboats in our state, taking a trip on Night Boat to New York.

"For more than a century, overnight and day-excursion steamers had plied the route between Hartford and New York," writes Hesselberg, "carrying passengers, mail, and goods on regularly-scheduled runs. More than just transportation, a trip on a river steamer was an adventure in itself."

Hesselberg explains that through much of the 1800s, the steamboat was a social phenomenon at the center of a recreational revolution, drawing wide swaths of the public to commune with nature and, eventually he says, to the seashore.

GUESTS:

• Erik Hesselberg: Journalist; Author, Night Boat to New York; Editor, Voices on the River

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