Transportation evolved at this crossroads village as Nipmuck trails gave way to pioneer roads. Robert Taft I and his sons built the first bridge across the Blackstone River in 1709. The Middle Post Road, set down by Ben Franklin as the 9th Massachusetts turnpike, began locally around "Colonel Crown's land" and meandered past rocky Yankee farms and woods, as it carried French and Indian War troops, Revolutionary war regiments, and their Commander in Chief, 1812 War supplies, and passed a Civil War camp near "Stage Coach Hill". Taverns along the middle post road here included the Wood Tavern, at Rice City, the Spring Tavern and the Taft Tavern at North Uxbridge, and the Thayer Tavern, near East Douglas. Today the old east-west Middle Post Road is known locally as Hartford Avenue.