David Martin's Ferry
Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Operated at "The Forks" on grants received in 1739 and 1741. It was an important link on a main route to the west until 1806. Transported troops and supplies in the Revolutionary War.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
At "The Forks" where the Lehigh meets the Delaware, David Martin secured grants in 1739 and 1741 to run a ferry across the water — one of the vital crossings that stitched frontier Pennsylvania to the routes heading west. For decades travelers, wagons, and goods depended on it, and during the Revolutionary War it carried troops and supplies for the American cause. It served until 1806, when bridges and better roads finally overtook the old ferry.
Why it matters
Before bridges spanned the great rivers, ferries like Martin's were the arteries of American movement and commerce — and this one's wartime service ties a humble crossing to the founding struggle for independence.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the middle of the eighteenth century, the wedge of land where the Lehigh River pours into the Delaware was raw frontier country. Colonists called the spot "The Forks of the Delaware," and it sat at the edge of settled Pennsylvania, where the mapped and the unmapped met. To go anywhere beyond it meant crossing water, and there were no bridges to help you do it.
This was the era when Pennsylvania was pushing westward, and the rivers that made the land fertile also made it hard to cross. A traveler with a wagon, a drover with livestock, or a merchant with goods bound for the interior all faced the same problem at the water's edge. Somebody had to carry them over.
A ferry answered that need. Operating under grants secured in 1739 and 1741, this crossing became a fixed point in a moving world — a place where the road paused, the river was conquered, and the journey resumed on the far bank.
People & events
David Martin was one of those early operators whose name survives precisely because his work was so essential. He did not fight a famous battle or write a famous document. He ran a ferry — and in doing so, he kept a whole region moving.
The grants he received in 1739 and 1741 were more than paperwork; they were licenses to control a chokepoint. Whoever held the ferry rights held the key to the crossing, and travelers heading toward the western country had little choice but to pass through here. For decades, wagons, horses, and foot travelers queued at his landing.
When the Revolutionary War came, that ordinary crossing took on an extraordinary duty. The ferry carried troops and supplies for the American cause, turning a commercial convenience into a strand of the war effort. An army marches on its logistics, and logistics, in that country, meant getting men and materiel across the water.
Its place in the American story
It is easy to picture the American Revolution as a series of battles and speeches. But the war — and the young country it created — also depended on humble infrastructure: the roads, the fords, and the ferries that let people and goods move at all.
Before engineers spanned the great rivers with permanent bridges, crossings like this one were the arteries of American movement and commerce. Cut them, and a region's economy and an army's supply line both seized up. A ferry was not a footnote to the national story; it was part of the circulatory system that made the story possible.
This crossing served until 1806, when better roads and new bridges finally overtook the old way. That it lasted so long, and that it carried the Revolution's traffic in its most dangerous years, ties one modest riverbank to the founding struggle for independence.
If you visit
Stand near the confluence and let the geography explain itself. Watch how the Lehigh meets the Delaware, and you will understand instantly why people built a town here and why a crossing mattered so much. The rivers are the whole reason this place exists.
The ferry itself is long gone, replaced by the bridges and roads that made it obsolete. What remains is the sense of a threshold — a spot where, for the better part of a century, every westbound traveler had to stop and trust the water to a ferryman.
If you are planning a road trip through the region, treat this marker as a reminder of how differently people once moved. You will cross rivers all day without a second thought; here, that crossing was once the hardest part of the whole journey.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
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