On July 20, 1900, an airship designed and built by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin of Germany made its first flight near the Port of Freeteri today. The airship was built in a hangar floating on Lake Constance. It had an aluminum shell wrapped in wire and wrapped in cotton cloth with 16 hydrogen air bags. Two 16-horsepower engines bring the airship to speeds of 14 miles per hour. During the American Civil War, von Zeppelin rose into the sky in a balloon for the first time while serving in the Union army, and he has been working on airships since 1891.