The ferry boat "Charon" was built in 1889 and owned and operated by the Bellaire & Wheeling Ferry Co. The "Charon" was part of a two-boat fleet, along with the "Ruth Ann," that ran ferry service from Bellaire, Ohio, to the Forty-Third Street, Bloch Bros. Tobacco dock, Wheeling, W. Va., and to Seventh or Ferry Street, Benwood, W. Va. The building of the Bellaire-Benwood Bridge, which could accommodate traffic loads 10 times what the ferry boats could, would be the end of the business and the demise of the "Charon," which sideswiped a pillar on the bridge in the summer of 1929 and sank.