In 1890, a wooden toll bridge spanned the St. Georges River, with no barrier to keep a horse or person from falling into the water. Some say the first Indian trading post north of the bridge was established by the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in 1623, and Thomaston was a natural place for such a post downeast from Boston. The St. Georges River, well charted since Captain George Weymouth first explored it in 1605, became a favored place for Englishmen to harvest tall, straight white pines, called Weymouth pines, for boat building, especially masts, and the English cut trees here from around 1605 until the Revolutionary War. At the same time, the harbor held numerous vessels, with smoke from the limekilns rising behind the ships' masts.