The land and water at Occoquan Creek have long been important in Prince William County history. Dogue Indians once lived along the creek, and the King's Highway passed the county's first courthouse, which stood nearby. On April 7, 1791, George Washington narrowly escaped disaster while crossing the creek on the ferry when his carriage horses fell overboard, then swam and pulled the carriage and Washington safely to shore. Prince William County's first courthouse stood near the foot of the modern railroad trestle on this side of the creek and was chartered in April 1731, one month after the county was established. The new county included land within today's Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun, and Fauquier Counties. The Potomac Path, or King's Highway, was a major route that paralleled the Potomac well into the 20th century, and Occoquan Creek divided the road between the creek bank and Colchester. In 1684, officials ordered Colonel George Mason to provide a ferry across the Occoquan for military purposes, and the Mason family operated the ferry beginning in 1691. In 1795, a wooden bridge replaced it, and the town of Woodbridge was named for that early structure. The courthouse complex was established near the ferry landing on the lower shore of the Mason family's Occoquan Plantation and remained the center of county government until 1743, when the county seat moved to Cedar Run. In 1773, patriot George Mason IV willed Occoquan Plantation to his son Thomas, together with the right and benefit of keeping the ferry over the Occoquan from both sides of the river, which he said had been vested in him and his ancestors from the first settlement of that part of the country and long before the land there was taken up and patented.