Improvements in methods of transportation caused an increase in business activity. By the Pittsburg pike, by the canal with its Portage Railway, and finally by the Pennsylvania Railroad, trade was coming from Philadelphia. Not less promptly did the men of Baltimore and the Virginians reach Pittsburg by the trail, the National Road, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Because Pittsburg stood at the head of the Ohio it was a door to the whole Mississippi valley, and men and goods quickly found their way to it. Once there a boat would take them over thousands of miles of river, or to New Orleans and the open sea. Henry Clay used to tell in Congress a good story about Pittsburg. He said that a ship built at Pittsburg sailed down the river, through the gulf, across the Atlantic, into the Mediterranean, and anchored at Leghorn. The captain handed his papers to the officer of the customhouse, who did not credit them. “Sir,” said he, “your papers are forged; there is no such port as Pittsburg in the world; your vessel must be confiscated.” Though the captain was frightened, he pulled out a map and taught the Italian official a lesson in geography, making him understand at last that one could sail a thousand miles up the Mississippi and another thousand up the Ohio, and that there was such a port as Pittsburg. [Illustration: FIG. 45. PITTSBURG] The first boats on the Ohio river were the light bark canoes of the red men. These could sail in almost any water, but they were easily broken and could carry only light loads. When white men began to throng the river and wanted to carry their families, household furniture, tools, grain, and all the produce of the land, they needed something larger and stronger. At first they built barges, which were little more than great boxes made water-tight. These they loaded and steered down the stream as best they could. They did not expect to bring them back, for such boats could not be pushed against the current. Hence the barge builders at Pittsburg always had work, for a new one had to be provided for each fresh cargo. Later men began to make keel boats, in which they could not only go downstream but could also, by poling, make a return voyage. These boats were about fifty feet long and could carry twenty tons or more. Along the sides were “running boards,” where the men went up and down with their setting poles to drive the boat against the current. The space between the running boards was covered over to form a kind of cabin. It was not an easy task to pole one of these boats up a rapid, and the life on the river was a life of toil.