At this Susquehanna River crossing, a network of brave humanitarians aided thousands of freedom seekers. Among them was Robert Loney, born enslaved in Virginia circa 1815, who ferried fugitives across the river and placed them in the care of William Wright for distribution to other agents. This shallow, rocky section of the river just upstream from Columbia and Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, had long been an important crossing point, with a ferry operating here beginning in the 1730s. By 1830 the Pennsylvania Canal hugged the eastern shore, and in 1834 the second great bridge linking these towns, then the world's longest wooden covered span, and the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad further strengthened these connections. These routes influenced the paths of explorers, armies, westbound settlers, and African Americans seeking freedom from slavery. Anti-slavery activity here reaches back to the late 1700s, and around 1815-1820 hundreds of enslaved workers were freed at Columbia by plantation owners. Courageous black and white residents helped runaway slaves evade bounty hunters, and such efforts along the Lower Susquehanna were among the earliest stirrings of the movement that by the late 1830s became known as the underground railroad, a secret network to freedom.
