The Schuylkill River played an important role in the settlement and growth of Amity and Union Townships. A shallow crossing at this location allowed people and wagons to ford the river and may have been one reason Mouns Jones selected this site for his homestead. Thomas Millard's Mill, c. 1712-14, operated about one-half mile downriver on the opposite bank from Muns Jones' and other Manatawny plantations. Farmers and millers used shallow draft boats to take produce to Philadelphia when river conditions permitted, and area ironmasters also sent pig iron and specialized ironwork downriver for purchase. Although subject to frequent flooding, the river provided fish and served as transportation, becoming essential to local prosperity but also a source of controversy. During the 1730s, ill feeling and even rioting broke out between boatmen and shore-based fishermen, whose obstructive weirs and racks along stretches of the river sometimes caused boats to overturn and cargo to be lost. This river crossing and the White Horse Inn at Morlatton became popular destinations for settlers traveling in the area, and in the 1760's George Douglass's Amity Store added to the attraction. After more than a century of shallow-water crossings, the first bridge spanning White Horse Ford was built in 1832 by the Douglassville Bridge Company under the supervision of six commissioners, including George Douglass II. The two-lane covered toll bridge, 340 feet long and 24 feet wide, used the patented Burr Arch truss system and was supported by three massive stone piers. The company rebuilt it after disastrous floods in 1850 and 1869. Berks County bought the bridge in 1885, ending the tolls, but after substantial flood damage in 1902 and 1909, it was closed to vehicles in 1950 and dismantled in the summer of 1951.