1871 - 1972
"It will give some idea of the magnitude of the business done at Easton (a place the existence of which was hardly known in New York until recently) to state there are, within three miles, a total of 49 large factories, and other smaller factories all in successful operation."
Central Railroad of New Jersey, 1852
Five year annual report
As towpath canals were reaching their peak years of operation in the 1850s, railroads,
innovative transport systems, began to emerge. After a devastating flood destroyed the upper section of the Lehigh Navigation in 1862, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania prohibited the rebuilding of this part of the canal.
Instead, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LC&N) decided to extend its
Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad from White Haven to Mauch Chunk and then south and east to Easton. Begun in 1863 and completed in 1868, the railroad offered a
direct route between the anthracite coal regions in the north to Easton. By 1871, financial problems caused LC&N to lease the Lehigh and Susquehanna to the
Central Railroad of New Jersey.
With this lease, the Central Railroad of New Jersey gained access to the
rich anthracite coal deposits of northeastern Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley's growing iron and cement industries. The last decades
of the nineteenth century were the
golden age of railroading in the Easton area. In response to this prosperity, elaborate train stations were erected.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey leased the Lehigh and Susquehanna until 1972. With the decline of anthracite coal production, the Central Railroad decided to abandon its Pennsylvania lines.
Today, parts of the old Lehigh and Susquehanna line continue to be used by Norfolk Southern, while other sections have been transformed into recreational rail-trails for walking, biking and hiking.
[Photo captions, from top to bottom, read]
· Empty Jersey Central coal "jimmies" waiting for coal at Mauch Chunk (Jim Thorpe) during the 1880s.
· Completed in 1888, this impressive brick and wooden building served as the Central Railroad of New Jersey's Easton Station.
· Track crews, like the one pictured here (ca. 1900), worked on the Lehigh and Susquehanna Division of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
· In the 1930s, the Jersey Central operated luxury express passenger trains such as "The Queen of the Valley" pictured here along the Lehigh Valley.
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