The largest ship in the world arrives in New York after 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 on June 17, 1860.  She reached the Sandy Hook Light outside New York Harbor in the morning hours of this day after a ten day journey.  Exhibited around the U.S. coast during July, she sailed for home from New York on August 16, 1860.  (By John Osborne)