''Capital'', a famous side-wheel steamboat that ran between

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

from 1866 to 1896. ''Capital'' was built in

, by shipbuilder John Gunder North in his shipyard in the Potrero District. Launched in 1866, it was a 277 feet long, 1,989 ton, side-wheel

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses we ...

. ''Capital'', was the largest of the steamboats on the rivers in California and the last side-wheel steamer built for the

California Steam Navigation Company The California Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1854 to consolidate competing steamship companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. It was successful in this effort and established a profitable near-m ...

for the run between Sacramento and San Francisco until it was put to use as a ferry by the railroad between Oakland and San Francisco in July 1876. It remained on the water under various owners until it was broken up 1896.MacMullen, Jerry, Paddle-Wheel Days in California, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1970.

Notes

Sidewheel steamboats of California Ships built in San Francisco Ferries of California Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area California Steam Navigation Company {{California-transport-stub