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Vivid-Air7029 t1_j130v9s wrote

Reply to comment by ChamberlainSD in When this bridge in Fort Benton, Montana, USA was built 1888 it was required to have a swing span to allow steamboats to navigate. It was considered the furthest navigable point on Earth, more than 2,700 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. by triviafrenzy

I don’t think taxes are what mattered. Especially in an era where tariffs were the main tax. Rivers were used because you could actually sell them to non local markets where they were much more valuable.

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NoExplanation734 t1_j13wkhu wrote

Before the invention of trains, it was much, much cheaper to ship by water than over land. Think about how long it would take and how arduous it would be to travel 2,700 miles by horse and cart with no roads, versus how easy and relatively quick it would be to just float down a river. There's a reason basically every major human settlement before the invention of the train was accessible by water.

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joecarter93 t1_j14gjdx wrote

Even with the fur trade in Northern Canada, an area that is still pretty remote to this day and never had much in the way of rail they used canoes to transport furs instead of hiking it with horses.

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Rocketgirl8097 t1_j15ilqs wrote

Rivers were used because they were faster and easier to carry your supplies and your beaver pelts going back. Cheaper too since you didn't have acquire and feed horses and pack mules.

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