Lowe's latest  balloon, the City of New York, was a massive 103-foot (31.4 m) diameter balloon with an 11½ ton (10,433 kg) lift capacity (on coke gas, 22½ ton (20,412 kg) on hydrogen), which included a 20-foot (6 m) diameter, eight-man canvas-covered gondola and a suspended lifeboat named for his wife Leontine.
It was prepared for a test flight to be launched at Reservoir Square in New York on November 1, 1859.
Unfortunately the local gas company was not able to deliver a sufficient supply of gas.
Within a week Lowe was invited to Philadelphia by Prof. John C. Cresson of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Sciences, who also happened to be Chairman of the Board of the Point Breeze Gas Works.
They promised a sufficient supply of gas.
Lowe stored the balloon in Hoboken and waited for spring to do the test flight.

Before the test flight the balloon was renamed the Great Western, on the advice of newspaperman Horace Greeley, to rival the maiden voyage of the steamship Great Eastern in the spring of 1860.
Lowe made the flight successfully on June 28, 1860, from Philadelphia to New Jersey, but on his first attempt at a transatlantic launch on September 7, the Great Western was ripped open by a wind.
A second attempt on September 29 was halted when the repaired spot on the balloon bulged during inflation.
Lowe would need to overhaul the Great Western and wait for the next late spring.

A second test flight, at the suggestion of Prof. Henry, was made from Cincinnati and was to return him to the eastern seaboard.
For this flight he used the smaller balloon Enterprise.
His flight took off on the early morning of April 19, 1861, two days after Virginia had seceded from the Union.
The flight misdirected him to Unionville, SC, where he was put under house arrest as a Yankee spy.
Having established his identity as a man of science, he was allowed to return home, where he had received word from Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase to come to Washington with his balloon.
The American Civil War permanently ended Lowe's attempt at a transatlantic crossing.
Lowe's latest  balloon, the City of New York, was a massive 103-foot (31.4 m) diameter balloon with an 11½ ton (10,433 kg) lift capacity (on coke gas, 22½ ton (20,412 kg) on hydrogen), which included a 20-foot (6 m) diameter, eight-man canvas-covered gondola and a suspended lifeboat named for his wife Leontine. It was prepared for a test flight to be launched at Reservoir Square in New York on November 1, 1859. Unfortunately the local gas company was not able to deliver a sufficient supply of gas. Within a week Lowe was invited to Philadelphia by Prof. John C. Cresson of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Sciences, who also happened to be Chairman of the Board of the Point Breeze Gas Works. They promised a sufficient supply of gas. Lowe stored the balloon in Hoboken and waited for spring to do the test flight.
Before the test flight the balloon was renamed the Great Western, on the advice of newspaperman Horace Greeley, to rival the maiden voyage of the steamship Great Eastern in the spring of 1860. Lowe made the flight successfully on June 28, 1860, from Philadelphia to New Jersey, but on his first attempt at a transatlantic launch on September 7, the Great Western was ripped open by a wind. A second attempt on September 29 was halted when the repaired spot on the balloon bulged during inflation. Lowe would need to overhaul the Great Western and wait for the next late spring.
A second test flight, at the suggestion of Prof. Henry, was made from Cincinnati and was to return him to the eastern seaboard. For this flight he used the smaller balloon Enterprise. His flight took off on the early morning of April 19, 1861, two days after Virginia had seceded from the Union. The flight misdirected him to Unionville, SC, where he was put under house arrest as a Yankee spy. Having established his identity as a man of science, he was allowed to return home, where he had received word from Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase to come to Washington with his balloon. The American Civil War permanently ended Lowe's attempt at a transatlantic crossing.
Thaddeus S. C. Lowe