Lighter-than-air vehicles had been experimented with for centuries. The first of which trace back to Lieutenant Jean Baptiste Marie Meusnier, who cross the English Channel in a primitive airship in 1785. Throughout the 1800s, experimentation was done to make lighter-than-air travel practical as inventors tackled problems of lift and propulsion. The Golden Age of airships began in 1900 with the introduction of the Zeppelin airships, developed by the German Count von Zeppelin. These quickly spread around the world and were used for travel and, during World War I, combat. The spread of airships continued after the war, but halted abruptly in 1937 after the Hindenburg crash in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Airship development only continued in the Soviet Union and United States until after the war.