 In 1748–1750 an expedition led by Cresap and the Delaware Amerindian Chief Nemacolin began widening the Nemacolin Trail into freight wagon road from Cumberland to Redstone Old Fort.A decade later, George Washington and his troops would further improve the same road prior to Braddock's Military Expedition during the French and Indian War.Redstone, on the Monongahela River became Brownsville, Pennsylvania which dwarfed Pittsburgh in growth and vibrant industrial activities until circa 1840-50s, as a center for construction and outfitting various river craft (keel boats, flat boats, steamboats) settlers used to settle not only the entire Mississippi drainage basin, but the far west and Oregon Country beyond the source waters of the Missouri River.