Historic ferries operated on rivers around Atlanta, Georgia area, and became namesakes for numerous current-day roads in north Georgia. Most of the ferries date to the early years of European-American settlement in the 1820s and 1830s, when Cherokee and other Native Americans still occupied part of what became Georgia. An assortment of privately owned and operated ferries carried travelers and loads across the Chattahoochee River and several other smaller rivers. Ferry operators often set up small trading posts at their ferry landings. They provided much needed service when there were no bridges, and many rivers ran too high to be forded. After the Civil War, the state and cities began to build bridges to replace the ferries. Some of these are counted among the historic bridges of the Atlanta area. Bell's Ferry Note: The first sentence below has no historical documentation. There are no historical references to a Bell's Ferry across Little River. There was a King's Ferry there in the 1830s See book cited below. Consult court documents and information about Bell's Ferry cited here below. Bell's Ferry was a privately run ferry across the Little River in Cherokee County. This location is now part of a narrow arm of Lake Allatoona, and the present-day Bell's Ferry Road crosses the Little River over a bridge. Bells Ferry Road runs from Church Street (former Georgia State Route 3 (SR 3), one block west of former SR 5 on Cherokee Street) in Marietta, north to Marietta Street (former SR 5 in Canton). It is an alternative route between the two county seats, departing well west of former SR 5 (which is now renumbered onto Interstate 575). Until 1984, the section of this road from SR 92 at Oak Grove north to Canton was designated as SR 205. Within the city of Marietta, street name signs use the proper "Bell's" rather than "Bells". The southernmost end of the road is called Church Street Extension, although it is a turn off Church Street, and a straight continuation of Bells Ferry Road. The name change occurs at an arbitrary place in the road (near Cobb Electric Membership Corporation), instead of at a major intersection such as Cobb Parkway. This section was once the main street through the small town of Elizabeth. According to Cherokee County court documents of 1835, James H. Bell operated a ferry across the Etowah River. It has been suggested that,