For nearly a century, ferryboats docked along the river bank below. Beginning in 1831 at a site one mile west of here called Griswoll City, a ferryboat poled across the river daily. By the late 1800's, ferryboats were making hourly trips from New Haven to Warren County. Residents north of the river in the communities of Pinckney, Piers, Holstein, Treloar, and Smith Creek used the ferry to travel to New Haven to shop and socialize, and high school students used it to attend school there. Early boats were built with paddlewheels and powered by steam engines fueled with wood. Around 1900, the unusual ferryboat Tilda-Clara was powered by a team of horses walking on a treadmill that turned the paddlewheel. Later boats used gasoline engines and carried automobiles and their passengers. Olive Street, then called Ferry Street, led from the station, and many New Haven businesses, including those on that street, benefited from ferryboat traffic. With the Washington bridge in 1936, ferryboat service was no longer needed for residents living on opposite sides of the river.