And when american pioneers master the waters of the mississippi basin with a radical invention , the steamboat , a new era opens .
当美国的先驱者用划时代的发明,轮船,掌控了密西西比河水域的水,昭示着一个新纪元的到来。
Eight years earlier , the general slocum , a steamboat on a charter run to a church picnic , exploded and sank in the east river . More than 1000 people died .