Standing on the Providence & Worcester Railroad bridge as it crosses the Blackstone River at Millville, Massachusetts, you are looking upstream to a point on the river bank where canal boats exited and entered the river via the lock just beyond the trees to the right of that site. The canal towpath,whose beginnings you can see to the left of the canal's point of entry into the river, follows the left bank towards the railroad bridge. With an auto bridge parallel to the railroad and directly behind the point from which this photo was taken, the site contains the centuries-old history of transportation in the Blackstone River Valley corridor.

The Blackstone River Valley is a 50-mile linear corridor stretching from Worcester, MA south to Providence, RI. As with other sea-coast river valleys in New England, the Valley gives evidence of trails used for travel by Native Americans as they fished the river and traveled its waters. English merchant colonists, like William Blackstone who settled on the river in 1635 and Roger Williams who later found refuge in the colony, developed those trails to engage in trade with the Indians and traveled the river in their search for opportunities in the Valley. Other English immigrants followed and trade was augmented with agriculture.