River travel between the east coast and the new settlements in the west was the easiest way to move people and goods true or false

The correct answer is - False.

The river travel was not the easiest, and actually not even a way that was possible for travel between the East Coast and the new settlements in the West. The main reason for this is the geography. Between the East Coast and the Midwest there's mountain ranges, running from north to south, and between the Midwest and the West Coast there's also mountains running from north to south. That makes the river travel restricted to only one area, as there is no rivers that run from east to west and cut through the mountain ranges. There's only one area where this has been possible, which is the northernmost part of the United States, but taken as a whole this way of travel was not possible.