History:

In the Treaty of 1683 William Penn was given a piece of land - later to be known as West Conshohocken - by the Unami Tribe of the Lenni-Lenape nation of Indians.

The name Conshohocken, found on William Penn's deed, is a derivative of "Gueno-dkeiki-hacking ... the place of the long fine land," as it was described by the Lenni-Lenape Indians. Today, Conshohocken is interpreted as "Pleasant Valley".

In 1712, John Matson, an early settler, acquired land from William Penn that included the west bank of the Schuylkill from the present-day Bridgeport to the Lower Merion Township Line. Peter Matson, John Matson's son built his house along the river and installed a "ford" by placing rocks in the river. That community became known as Matson's Ford, a name that still endures today as a street in town.

Matson's Ford played a small part in history during the Revolutionary War. In 1777, Washington's army left Whitemarsh and traveled down Conshohocken's Fayette Street towards Matson's Ford. They constructed a bridge of wagons, over which rails were laid as the soldiers crossed under the command of Lafayette. As they were coming over, Lord Cornwallis and his British soldiers appeared from the hills. Our soldiers were forced to retreat and cross Swede's Ford into Valley Forge on December 13, 1777.

The first Council of the Borough started in October 6, 1847. It dealt with various problems such as preventing horse, mule, cow, bull or other cattle, swine or goats to run at large in the streets of said borough with a fine of not less that one dollar nor more than five dollars.  In the years to come, Council made regulations to traffic by way of one-way streets and parking regulations. Council also levied a tax on such services as telephone, electric light, heat and power.

One of the earliest forms of mass transportation in West Conshohocken was the Reading Railroad, built in 1839. The service reached from Reading to Pottstown and down the West Bank of the Schuylkill to West Conshohocken. Bus service began in the 1920's.

One of the Borough's main concerns beginning back to the 18th century and continuing to the present day is traffic and roadways. "From Township Line Road in the eighteenth century to the Schuylkill Expressway and the controversial Blue Route in the twentieth century, roads leading to West Conshohocken have been of concern to the whole (Montgomery) County."