Allegany River to the Ohio River

Lumber and rafts made of lumber were moved downstream from the Allegany River in Allegany NY to the Monongahela River and Ohio River to the builders that resided in the city of Pittsburg Pennsylvania.

Rafts were made of logs and squared timber transported downstream for building purposes. Rafts were assembled when the river was high in the spring in order to safely navigate to its destination. Once a smaller raft made it to a larger part of the river, it was often joined together by the smaller rafts through the process called snubbing using cables. Rafts were ran during the daytime as it was too dangerous on the Allegheny at night and hard to navigate.

Rafts started out small in the Allegany River in Allegany New York about a 12ft x 48 ft platform. As they made it to Warren PA, they would get bigger approximately 340ft long and 52 ft. wide. When they made it to Pittsburgh the rafts were get bigger sometimes 540 ft long.

https://www.warrenhistory.org/Lumber/4lumber%20rafting.html