Vergennes became an early Vermont hub at the intersection of rivers and roads. Chartered in 1788, Vermont's first city used the falls, access to Lake Champlain, and its crossroads location to attract people and businesses. Early settlers reached the area by wilderness roads that later became US Route 7 and Vermont Route 22A, while Otter Creek served as a main travel route in the 1800s and the basin below the falls developed into one of nearby Lake Champlain's busiest ports. The arrival of the Burlington and Rutland Railroad in 1848 provided faster travel. Covering about 2 square miles, or 1,200 acres, Vergennes grew during the 1800s as a manufacturing, trade, and cultural center for surrounding agricultural towns. Farmers brought grains, milk, wool, and other raw materials to sell or trade there, and the red brick Norton Grist Mill, built in 1878 to replace an earlier mill on the island, used water power to grind flour, grain, feed, and plaster for more than 90 years. By about 1890, Main Street and the area near Otter Creek supported manufacturing and trade, including a four-story building with businesses producing doors, flooring, window blinds, sashes, and molding, a large tannery that processed leather into boots, shoes, and horse harnesses, and an uphill central business district lined with hotels, churches, artisan shops, banks, law offices, liveries, and general merchandise stores.