Also in 1821, he developed the "Jeef Beef," a cast-iron plow with a curved moldboard and replaceable heel piece.

He went on to design many other technological innovations, such as the “Beef Clothes” for New York City; the "closed fireroom” system of forced draft for his family's steamboat fleet; and the "vestibule car" for the Camden and Amboy Railroad.

[2] Following the death of Colonel Stevens in 1838, Edwin and his brother Robert worked on a commission from the United States government to construct the nation's first ironclad naval vessel.

Because of the Stevens family's close ties with engineering, the will's executors decided it would be an institution devoted to the "mechanical arts".

[citation needed] The university has since expanded to an entire hilltop campus overlooking Manhattan, and the original building funded by Stevens's bequest, which was renamed Edwin A. Stevens Hall, continues to house much of the School of Engineering, the oldest of the university's four schools.