The Humpback Bridge once crossed the Grand Trunk Railway here. Built in 1900, the narrow wooden span carried vehicles on state route M-36 over the railway line, now the Lakeland Trail. As traffic increased and vehicles became motorized, the bridge proved unsuited to speeding traffic, was the site of accidents, and fell into disrepair before its demolition in 1966 and the reconfiguration of M-36. Hamburg’s first settlers, arriving in 1831, had followed Indian trails along the Huron River and between area lakes. The earliest roads built in the area were graded dirt roads, later paved for heavier traffic. The route now known as Hamburg Road was cut through the region in 1835.