The largest ship in the world sails for New York on its first trans Atlantic voyage

The massive S.S. Great Eastern, whose 692 length and 17,274 tons would not be surpassed in shipbuilding till the turn of the century, left the English coast for its first ocean going voyage to New York.  She reached the Sandy Hook Light outside New York Harbor in the morning hours of June 27, 1860 after a respectable ten days.  Exhibited around the U.S. coast during July, she sailed for home from New York on August 16, 1860.  (By John Osborne)