Bottled water—whether in reusable containers, glass bottles or in those ubiquitous plastic bottles—may seem like a modern phenomenon, but the concept actually has a surprisingly long history. The practice dates back to ancient Rome, the great spas of Europe and colonial America. Here are some milestones that led to the popularity of bottled water as we know it today.

The earliest example we have of people putting water in a container in order to transport it somewhere else occurred during the Roman Empire, says Michael Mascha, an anthropologist, water sommelier and author of Fine Waters: A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World of Premium Waters. Naturally carbonated mineral water from places like Apollinaris in northern Germany was the first to be bottled. Though glass was manufactured in ancient Rome, it was too expensive to be used for water. Earthenware jars were used instead.

“There are records from the Roman Empire [documenting] transporting containers of water in earthenware from Apollinaris through the Roman Empire,” Mascha says. "This is where bottled water starts, for me.” After the fall of the Roman Empire, water was no longer transported, Mascha says.

Another type of sought-after water emerged around the 5th century as pilgrims visited holy wells, also referred to as blessed wells, in Europe and the Middle East. In addition to symbolizing an act of devotion, drinking water from these springs was typically associated with some kind of health benefit, like curing a particular disease. The highest concentration of holy wells is found in Ireland, which has more than 3,000. 

When people visited these sacred sites, they wanted to bring some of the holy water home with them. In order to prove its authenticity, each holy well produced a ceramic flask for the water specific to the site, as well as a unique seal, Jim Salzman, professor of environmental law at University of California, Los Angeles writes in his book, Drinking Water: A History.

The relationship between water and health was further entrenched during the era of great European spa towns, which emerged around the 1400s and 1500s, Mascha says. At this time—and especially into the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s and 1800s—cities were filthy places. Water in urban areas was not only extremely polluted, it was also the primary vector for diseases like cholera and typhus, he explains. So when wealthy people went away to a spa for a few weeks, they felt better and healthier after drinking the clean water for a prolonged period of time. And like the holy wells, most spas claimed that their mineral water contained healing properties.

Spas were unaffordable for most people. “This was the place where high society mixed and mingled,” Mascha explains. “It was a status symbol to go [to the spa] for a couple of months over the summer to take to the waters and enjoy a more healthy lifestyle.” People wanted to bring the experience from the spa to the city. Eventually, when glass manufacturing became cheaper, people brought water from the spas to the city in a bottle.

A spa town in Slovenia, Rogaška Slatina, is what some consider the birthplace of the modern bottled water industry. It’s unclear how long people have been coming to this location to bathe in and drink the waters, but use of the springs was first documented in 1141. The foundation stone was laid for the spa in 1572 and the associated Rogaška Medical Centre opened in 1594.

But the waters aren’t what set Rogaška Slatina apart from other spa towns. “People wanted to bring the water home, so they started a glass factory next to the spa,” Mascha says. “This is when you see the glass bottle and the water combined.” Glassmaking began in the town as early as 1665 and Rogaška Glassworks—which is still in existence today—started operating a factory in 1927. By the end of the 18th century, glass bottles were made in Rogaška at a rate of 20,000 per year.

Other mineral springs followed suit in Europe and eventually in the United States. Along with the mass production of glass bottles, railroads played a key role in the proliferation of bottled water. “Water is very heavy and bottles obviously break,” Salzman says. “But if you can load them onto trains, you can take them pretty much anywhere.”

One of the earliest places to sell bottled water in colonial America was at Jackson’s Spa in Boston in 1767. Here, people could pay a copper for a quart of bottled water from the springs. Around the same time, some of America’s mineral springs began drawing wealthy guests from around the fledgling country.

“Even in the early U.S., the Founding Fathers had visited the springs, and they were trying to bottle water,” says Peter Gleick, author of The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and a Hope for the Future. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and James Madison all became interested in the health benefits of mineral water—including those in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Though Indigenous people had been drinking water from springs for centuries, white settlers began taking advantage of the waters in the 1770s. Washington visited Saratoga Springs in 1783, and wrote to a friend about what it was like bottling the natural effervescent mineral water: “What distinguishes these waters … is the great quantity of fixed air they contain, carbon dioxide … Several persons told us that they had corked it tight in bottles and that the bottles broke.”

In the early days of the bottled water industry in the United States, the focus was on the health benefits of mineral water. Benjamin Rush, a physician who served as surgeon general of the Continental Army, and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, first investigated and reported on spring waters in 1773, followed by a 12-page booklet explaining the medicinal benefits of mineral water in 1786. 

“The springs weren't visited just to drink the water because they liked the taste,” Gleick says. “There was this idea that these natural springs had minerals that contributed to health.” This mindset continued into the 1800s, and through to the 1900s. In fact, the biggest market for bottled water in the United States in the early 1900s was pharmacies, according to Salzman. 

At this point, bottled water was still primarily used as medicine—not for hydration. It was also consumed for general “wellness,” and to do something “healthy” for your body, says Mascha. Artificially carbonated water—which Joseph Priestley invented in 1767, and the Schweppes company began bottling in 1783—was initially “more of a curiosity,” he explains.

Some of the earliest water-bottling operations in the United States are still around, including Poland Spring (1845), Mountain Valley Spring Water (1871), Saratoga Spring Water (1872) and Deer Park (1873).

While Europeans continued to drink mineral water, especially during meals, Americans had moved on to a much sweeter beverage: soda. The age of the soda fountain—which reached its peak in the first half of the 20th century—offered patrons a dizzying array of sugar-loaded soft drink options. “It took a long time for bottled water to come back,” Mascha says.

That comeback began in 1976, when Perrier, a French brand of naturally carbonated water, first started advertising in the United States. “The very first serious advertising efforts around bottled water were focused on convincing us that it was healthier than tap water, or as advertising does, [that] it made us sexier,” Gleick says. Perrier also had excellent timing, as its marketing campaign coincided with the fitness craze in the United States, Salzman says. 

Perrier continued to heavily market its bottled water in the U.S. in the latter part of the 20th century. “That really established that there was a commercial demand for it and a commercial market,” Gleick says. “And so Perrier, in a way, led the way to what has become the modern bottled water industry.”

Interest in bottled water picked up in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Since 2016, more bottled water has been sold each year in the United States than soft drinks.