Before the construction of the New York State Barge Canal and dam at Crescent, the Mohawk River here was shallow and fordable most of the year, and Native Americans crossed at this place for centuries. In 1755, during the French and Indian War, the British under General John Campbell, the Fourth Earl of Loudoun, built a crude road nearby between Albany and Lake George that became known as the Loudon Plank Road. Soldiers used this route north in 1758 to supply Fort William Henry and support an unsuccessful attempt to take Fort Carillon, or Ticonderoga, from the French. During the American Revolutionary War, this crossing and others over the Mohawk River at nearby Waterford worried American forces because British officers planned to capture Albany and isolate New England from the rest of the colonies through a three-pronged attack: Colonel Barry St. Leger from the west along the Mohawk River, General William Howe from New York City, and General John Burgoyne from Canada. The attacks from the west and south failed, and Burgoyne's army from the north was stopped at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 before reaching the Mohawk River fords. During the events of 1777, American Generals Enoch Poor and Benedict Arnold protected the Loudon Ford Crossing. Poor, a native of New Hampshire, later became a hero at Saratoga, served under General Washington, and died in 1780 in New Jersey while organizing an army to raid New York City. Despite a brilliant military record, Benedict Arnold was charged in 1780 with collaborating with the British in a plan to capture West Point, was labeled a traitor, escaped to Great Britain, and died there in 1801.