Settlement west of the Blue Ridge began in the mid-18th century, driven by the need for more land and by the desire to push the frontier westward as a buffer for eastern Virginia. While eastern settlers were mostly of English origin, western settlers were primarily of Scots-Irish and German origin. Radford lies in a valley corridor through Virginia’s mountains that people had used for millennia, and early settlers followed this natural pathway to bypass the mountains, later moving farther west along the Great Wagon Road or Wilderness Road, paths that were sometimes little more than trails across difficult terrain and rivers. In 1762, the Virginia House of Burgesses authorized William Ingles to operate a ferry across the New River, and Ingles Ferry became a vital crossing and regional reference point until 1842, when Thomas Ingles built a bridge there. Confederate forces burned the bridge in 1864, after which ferry service resumed and continued until 1948. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, travel in the region depended on foot or animal power, so residents along the Great Wagon Road opened many ordinaries and taverns where travelers could rest and resupply; these places became gathering points and sometimes the beginnings of towns. The Ingles family opened Ingles Ferry Tavern as a local hub, and another tavern at Lovely Mount was among the communities that gave rise to modern-day Radford.