Providence was a large sidewheel steamer launched in 1866 by William H. Webb of New York for the Merchants Steamship Company. The first of Narragansett Bay's so-called "floating palaces", the luxuriously outfitted Providence and her sister ship Bristol, each of which could carry up to 1,200 passengers, were installed with the largest engines then built in the United States, and were considered to be amongst the finest American-built vessels of their era.
Both ships would spend their entire careers steaming between New York and various destinations in and around Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. Providence was eventually scrapped in 1901.
Development
Providence and Bristol owed their existence to a short-lived company known as the Merchants Steamship Company, which placed the initial order for the vessels with the Webb shipyard in about 1865. Merchants Steamship was an amalgamation of three existing Narragansett Bay shipping lines, the Commercial Line, Neptune Line and Stonington Line. The Company intended to run the two steamers between New York and Bristol, Rhode Island in competition with the Fall River Line, which ran a similar service from New York to Fall River, Massachusetts (both Lines then linking up to railway lines that continued on to Boston.
Providence often refers to:
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Entertainment
Providence is a railroad station in Providence, Rhode Island, served by Amtrak and MBTA Commuter Rail. The station has four tracks and two island platforms for passenger service, with a fifth track passing through for Providence and Worcester Railroad freight trains. It is the 14th busiest Amtrak station in the country, and the busiest on the MBTA Commuter Rail system outside of the downtown Boston terminals.
The station was built in 1986 during a project to remove elevated tracks from downtown Providence. It is fully handicapped accessible for all trains.
Rail service
Two of Amtrak's passenger rail routes serve the station: the Acela Express and the Northeast Regional. The Acela Express is the United States' only high-speed rail service; the Regional is a slower local service. Both connect Providence with the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington D.C.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), also serves Providence. The Providence/Stoughton commuter rail line's southern terminus is located at Wickford Junction, two stops south of Providence. The Providence/Stoughton Line provides commuter service to towns between the airport, Providence and Boston, sharing track with Amtrak trains. In a 2013 count, Providence averaged 2,325 inbound MBTA passengers on weekdays, making it the busiest station on the system outside of the downtown Boston terminals.
Four vessels with the name Providence have served the British East India Company (EIC).