River navigation in 18th century was by flatboat and keelboat. First steamboat, NEW ORLEANS, arrived in Louisville in autumn of 1811. City soon became steamboat center with six lines operating here. Hundreds of these boats were built in area. Wharf teemed with traffic through Civil War. Eight U.S. presidents arrived on this wharf or "levee." Presented by The Louisville Historical League.
Reverse Description:
Visitors at Louisville Wharf
James Monroe - June 1819
Andrew Jackson - June 1819
Alexis de Tocqueville - Dec. 1831
Washington Irving - Sept. 1832
Abraham Lincoln - Sept. 1841
Charles Dickens - Apr. 1842
Walt Whitman - Feb. 1848
Ralph Waldo Emerson - June 1850
Oliver W. Holmes - Sept. 1855
Herman Melville - Jan.1858
Presented by Bellarmine College Alumni Association.
Erected in 1980.