1866 Steaming around Connecticut
In the first use of a steam car to garner national attention, brothers Henry and James House transported a party of men in their House steam car from Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Stratford, Connecticut, on this day. With the assistance of his brother James, inventor Henry House had constructed the House Steamer, one of America's first steam cars, earlier in the year. After testing their invention in and around Bridgeport for several months, the brothers approved the first official journey for the House steam car--a six-mile trip to Stratford to watch a vessel launching