In 1849, some 10,000 goldseekers ferried the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, and over the next two decades the settlement grew from "only a little Burg between two high bluffs" into the preferred "jumping off" point for thousands of overland emigrants bound for the Pacific Coast. The Mormon town of Kanesville dominated the area until 1853, when Council Bluffs emerged as a rambunctious border town with narrow, dusty streets jammed by wagons and livestock. Upper, middle, and lower ferries crossed to today's Florence, downtown Omaha, and South Omaha, charging whatever traffic would bear, while high water brought steamboats and later specialized steam ferries to help emigrants move their wagons across the dangerous Missouri. Travelers recalled long waits, crowded approaches, quarrels over places on the boats, and swift currents, with hundreds of wagons sometimes backed up at the river. In 1869, the transcontinental railroad crossed the Missouri at Council Bluffs and secured the city's lasting importance to American travel and commerce.