Question

Why couldn't travelers travel by steamboat across the Appalachian Mountains?

Answer 1

Because steamboats need a continuous, fairly deep and calm waterway. The Appalachian Mountains break up the continent into separate river systems and are full of steep ridges, shallow fast streams, rapids and waterfalls — not wide, level rivers a steamboat could navigate. There were no natural waterways that ran right across the mountains, and steamboats couldn’t climb steep elevation changes or be portaged over the ridges, so travelers had to use roads, canals (where built), or later railroads to cross.