Vienna, Maryland, on a bend in the Nanticoke River, has long served as a crossroads, trading center, and gateway to the Chesapeake Bay. Native Americans established settlements on both sides of the river between 900 and 1200, and in 1608 Captain John Smith encountered native people near Vienna. Colonists established the Chicone Indian Reservation north of Vienna in 1698, and it was disbanded 70 years later. The Maryland Assembly designated Vienna as a Port of Entry in 1706. British vessels raided the area during the Revolutionary War in 1776 and patrolled the Nanticoke River during the War of 1812. The first bridge over the Nanticoke River was built in 1828, the U.S. Civil War divided Vienna's populace in 1861, and by 1892 the railroad joined the steamboat as a transport option. Vienna was selected as the site for a new power generating plant in 1927, U.S. Route 50 bypassed the town in 1991, and in 2003 Vienna's Community Vision Plan called for its becoming the Gateway to the Nanticoke.