For centuries, the Susquehanna River was a major thoroughfare in the region's development, and this was one of the few places in Pennsylvania where river travel, American Indian trails, canals, railroads, and roads all met. American Indians traveled the river by canoe for trade and war with neighboring villages, and eighteenth-century explorers recorded that by 1710 a network of paths and Indian towns lined its shore; upstream, Warrior Spring was a historic American Indian gathering place. Shortly after the American Revolution, George Washington proposed canals to help settle and develop the new nation, and on July 4, 1834, the 73-mile West Branch Canal opened from Northumberland to Farrandsville at a cost of $1,158,580. In the 1800s, Pennsylvania had 1,400 miles of canals that carried merchandise, coal, iron, farm products, and passengers over long distances, and a canal boat from Port Penn could reach Philadelphia in six days. The Muncy division of the Pennsylvania Canal Company opened in the early 1830s, and a downstream dam created the Muncy Pool, raising the river level by 10 feet so the canal remained filled even in low water; a series of locks adjusted water levels, and double Lock No. 21 on the West Branch of the Susquehanna served as a gateway from Port Penn to Muncy, Williamsport, Lock Haven, and connections south to Harrisburg and beyond, east to Philadelphia, and west to Pittsburgh. By the 1850s, railroads drew business away from the canals, and railroad companies bought canal companies and laid tracks on towpaths and canal beds, replacing mules with trains. Each spring, rising water carried more than 2,000 log rafts downstream to markets as far as the Chesapeake Bay, and the largest raft to pass this point was 300 feet long, 25 feet wide, and weighed 150 tons. The Last Raft was a reenactment honoring the logging industry of the 1800s and early 1900s, and at the Reading Railroad Bridge, built in 1928 and known as the million dollar bridge, it crashed on March 20, 1938, when it struck a pier and threw 48 people into the Susquehanna River before thousands of spectators; seven died: Montgomery's major, Dr. Charles Taylor, raft pilot Harry Connor, Thomas Proffitt, Harold Beringer, W. C. VanScoyoc, Malcolm McFarland, and Willard Holley.