Rock Hall’s geography placed it along a heavily traveled transportation route and made it an important ferry terminus linking the Eastern Shore and Annapolis. In colonial times, people traveling between the Chesapeake region and Philadelphia, including founding fathers such as George Washington, passed through its docks and inns. Because news then moved only as fast as ferries and horses, Rock Hall’s location helped it stay current, and word of the end of the Revolutionary War passed through here on its way to Congress, carried by Tench Tilghman. Farmers in Kent County, like watermen, depended on Chesapeake Bay shipping to move their goods to Baltimore and Philadelphia markets, and Rock Hall’s wharf served as the shipping center for southern Kent County during the 19th and 20th centuries. Later changes in transportation, including the Bay Bridge and improved highways, altered life on the Eastern Shore.