Barge

Rafts or otherwise called, Barges, transported goods on our rivers. The Connecticut River, was the main north south transport axis. Its name derived from the Algonquin, quinnitukqut "by the long tidal river," sources just across the Canadian border emptying 406 miles south into Long Island Sound. The raft was steered by a giant ore (one is in the Historical Society). Many barges detoured, going south, through the Turner’s Falls barge canal where Cheapside was a famous river and trade port; in 1848, upwards of 50 trains a day came to Greenfield and that was the beginning of the end of river barge traffic.