Two rudimentary bridges were built to cross the Tockhockonetcong, now the Paulinskill, as Jonathan Hampton ordered construction of the Military Road in 1756. The Military Road served as an essential supply line to the frontier fortification in the Delaware Valley and was maintained until 1760. A permanent pair of bridges was built around 1790 after Henry and Peter Bale bought the abandoned lands and mills formerly owned by Benjamin Barton, a Loyalist. A mill located between the two bridges produced gun stocks for use in the Civil War, and the mill was destroyed by fire in 1923.