It passes through the approximately 5,000-foot Pattenburg Tunnel in West Portal, New Jersey, along its route. The line gave the LVRR a route into Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and the Schuylkill Valley coal fields.[32]. [1] In the 1870s the LVRR acquired other large tracts of land starting at 13,000 acres (53km2) in 1870,[9] with an additional of 5,800 acres (23km2) in 1872,[12] and turned its eye toward expansion across New Jersey all the way to the New York City area. (2 cu. (.03 cu. The Shortsville to Victor segment became the Ontario Central Railroad in 1979 (the Ontario Central became part of the Finger Lakes Railway in October 2007[51]). The LVRR shareholders received shares of the now independent Lehigh Valley Coal Company, but the railroad no longer had management control of the production, contracts, and sales of its largest customer. The San Jos to Merced project section of the California high-speed rail system will provide a critical rail link between Silicon Valley and the Central Valley. [10] The LVRR recognized that its own continued prosperity depended on obtaining what coal lands remained. ft.), Susquehanna and Clearfield Railroad / Annual Report to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. The lists were constructed by doing word searches of the narrative series descriptions for the designated words: maps, tracks and real estate. Although the decade began with the completion of its terminals at Buffalo and Jersey City, and the establishment of a trunk line across New York, the company soon became entangled in costly business dealings which ultimately led to the Packer family's loss of control. ft.), PRR / VP of Eastern Region / Locality Files, 1918-1936. (.53 cu. 1905 - Hojack swing bridge built at Charlotte. A massive proxy fight ensued, with existing President Edward Eugene Loomis narrowly retaining his position with the support of Edward T. Stotesbury of J. P. Its bankruptcy resulted in economic chaos, bringing on the financial panic of 1893 and forcing the LVRR to break the lease and resume its own operations, leaving it unable to pay dividends on its stock until 1904. The railroad then set its sights northward. Conrail integrated former CNJ main line leased trackage into the line and kept the line in continuous operation (since 1855); however, it downsized the line in the northwest from the Buffalo area of New York State: first to Sayre Yard in Sayre, Pennsylvania; then to Mehoopany, Pennsylvania; and finally to Penn Haven Junction in Lehigh Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania. ft.), Susquehanna Coal Company / Leases, 1883-1939. ft.), PRR / VP of Special Services / Merger Studies, 1950-1970. Coal, steel, passengers, and various other freight could be carried via the Lehigh Valley Railroad to either the Great Lakes or . In 1941, the Pennsylvania placed its shares in a voting trust after reaching an agreement with the New York Central regarding the PRR's purchase of the Wabash. Small party privacy and fantastic views! [1][9] To reach Wilkes-Barre, the LVRR purchased the Penn Haven & White Haven Railroad in 1864, and began constructing an extension from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre that was opened in 1867. From 1855 to 1879 the Lehigh Valley Railroad had grown from its original road between Mauch Chunk and Easton, to include 658 miles of track as far away as Buffalo and New York City. ft.), State Realty Company / Minute Book, 1907-1909. The Valuable Papers are arranged numerically by file number, and are indexed by 27 rolls of 16 mm microfilm (roll #s RRV 1073-1099) in a variety of ways: alphabetically by personal or corporate name of parties, alphabeticaly by name of geographical location, and numerically by file number. This allowed the line's eastbound grade to be reduced and a shorter route for handling through traffic established. Lehigh Gorge Trains are located at 1 Susquehanna Street, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229 #570-325-8485 . In 1883 the railroad acquired land in northeast Pennsylvania and formed a subsidiary called The Glen Summit Hotel and Land Company. The former Lehigh Valley tracks between Manville, New Jersey, and Newark are operated separately by Conrail Shared Assets Operations as their own Lehigh Line. Several combinations occurred, but each fell apart as one road or another abrogated its agreement. The line had a descending or level grade from Mauch Chunk to Easton and with the exception of the curve at Mauch Chunk had no curve of less than 700 feet radius. The original maps were never transferred to the Archives, but a book by book inventory of the film exists. [1][19][bettersourceneeded][20]. The LVRR decided to expand more to the Northeastern New Jersey in order to reach its freight yards without using the CNJ main line. (.01 cu. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. (17.5 cu. ft.), Wilcox Railroad Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. ft.), Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad / Contract Books, 1864-1891. (.02 cu. ft.), Berkshire Land Company / Cash Book, 1945-1953. ft.), West Lane Garage Company / Minute Book, 1934-1943. The line and the rest of the Lehigh Valley Railroad was absorbed into Conrail in 1976 and was maintained as a main line into the New York City area. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Annual Reports of Water Companies, 1914. The company was a subsidiary of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N), but for much of its lifetime leased by the Central Railroad of New Jersey.It was founded in 1837 to carry coal from the North Branch Division of the Pennsylvania Canal to the . Leadership of the company transferred smoothly to Charles Hartshorne, who had been vice president under Packer. This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 16:09. In total, today's railroads in Pennsylvania operate just over 5,000 route miles, which is well under half the state's all-time high of more than 11,500 miles. (.1 cu. the succession of recorded deeds). ft.), PRR / Secretary / Secretary's Correspondence, 1860-1966 (1905-1966). This company became an important factor in the movement of anthracite, grain and package freight between Buffalo, Chicago, Milwaukee, Duluth, Superior and other midwestern cities. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Pamphlet Description of Corporations in which PRR and Subs. The Pennsylvania Railroad in 1962 requested ICC authorization to acquire complete control of the LVRR through a swap of PRR stock for LVRR and elimination of the voting trust that had been in place since 1941. In 1972, the Lehigh Valley Railroad assumed the remaining Pennsylvania trackage of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, a competing anthracite railroad which had entered bankruptcy as well. of Purchases / General Correspondence and Confidential Files of C.D. Due to declining passenger patronage, the Lehigh Valley successfully petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to terminate all passenger service. In order to handle the additional new ocean traffic, the LVRR created a large new pier at Constable Hook, which opened in 1915, and a new terminal at Claremont which opened in 1923. (.12 cu. At the time of his death, the railroad was shipping 4.4 million tons of coal annually over 657 miles (1,057km) of track, using 235 engines, 24,461 coal cars, and over 2,000 freight cars of various kinds. File usage on Commons. Clement, 1935-1949. Finally in 1887 the two railroads reached a settlement, and construction of the LVRR's Jersey City freight yard began. [13][35] Unfortunately, it overreached and in 1893 was unable to meet its obligations. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Board Files: BFA Series, ca 1905-1960. [30] As a result of its leases and acquisitions, the Lehigh Valley gained a near-monopoly on traffic in the Finger Lakes region. ft.), Susquehanna, Bloomsburg, and Berwick Railroad / Minute Book, 1902-1918. The acquisitions in 1868 were notable because they marked the beginning of the LVRR's strategy of acquiring coal lands to ensure production and traffic for its own lines. I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: (SVG file, nominally 800 600 pixels, file size: 447 KB), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:JimIrwin, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lehigh_Valley_Railroad_System_Map.svg&oldid=460606778, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. (.2 cu. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Board of Directors' Inspection Trip Book, 1937. East of the junction with the Reading Line in Allentown and in Bethlehem, the line serves as Norfolk Southern's main corridor in and out of the Port of New York and New Jersey, and the New York Metro Area at large, as Norfolk Southern doesn't currently use the eastern half of its Southern Tier Line, which follows the Delaware River from Port Jervis north to Binghamton, New York, and which is now (2022) operated by the Central New York Railroad. The 46-mile-long (74km) LVRR connected at Mauch Chunk with the Beaver Meadow Railroad. 1850-1967] (157 cu. Although government-funded Amtrak took over intercity passenger service on May 1, 1971, railroad companies continued to lose money due to extensive government regulations, expensive and excessive labor cost, competition from other transportation modes, declining industrial business and other factors;[49] the Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of them. (.4 cu. Approximately 350,000 tons of anthracite moved to Perth Amboy during that year for transshipment by water. ft.), North Penn Coal Company / Minute Book, 1913-1938. Bankruptcy trustee from August 1974 to April 1976. Hurricane Agnes in 1972 damaged the rundown Northeast railway network, which put the solvency of other railroads including the LVRR in danger; the somewhat more solvent Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL) was also damaged by Hurricane Agnes. By the 1960s, railroads in the East were struggling to survive. The Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway was a Lehigh Valley Railroad company organized in 1891 through the consolidation of the companies that formed the Lehigh Valley's route from South Plainfield through Newark to Jersey City via its bridge across Newark Bay.Until 1895, when the Greenville and Hudson Railway was constructed, the Lehigh Valley depended on the National Docks Railway to reach the . The L&S had been chartered in 1837 by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (the Lehigh Canal company) to connect the upper end of the canal at Mauch Chunk to Wilkes-Barre. The Auburn Branch Sayre, PA to North Fair Haven NY, PA | CR, LV, NY&OM Batavia to Leroy, NY NY | LV Buffalo to Victor, NY NY | LV The Cayuga Lake Railroad Auburn to Lake Ridge, NY NY | CLRR, CR, LV The Cortland Branch East Ithaca to Camden, NY NY | LV Ithaca to . (1 cu. It leased the CNJ and the LVRR, purchased the railroads' coal companies and arranged for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad to cooperate with the combination, thereby controlling 70% of the trade. ft.), Western Pennsylvania Railroad / Minute Books, 1860-1903. In 1870, the Lehigh Valley Railroad acquired trackage rights to Auburn, New York, on the Southern Central Railroad.[1]. (.4 cu. President Richard Nixon signed the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 into law. Summary Outline map of the middle Atlantic states showing the three major lines in different colors. File. On January 7, 1853, the railroad's name was changed to Lehigh Valley Railroad. Language: (.11 cu. It fronted the Morris Canal Basin with a series of 600-foot (180m) piers angling out from the shoreline but was too narrow for a yard, so the LVRR built a separate yard at Oak Island in Newark to sort and prepare trains. Following Loomis' death in 1937, the presidency went to Loomis' assistant Duncan J. Kerr,[40] but in 1940 he was replaced by Albert N. Williams,[41] and the road came under the influence of the PRR. In 1999, the Norfolk Southern Railway which is owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation acquired the Lehigh Line in the Conrail split with CSX Transportation but the tracks from Manville, New Jersey, to Newark, New Jersey, were kept with Conrail in order for both Norfolk Southern and CSX to have equal competition in the Northeast. Map of the Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley Railroad, the predecessor to the Schuylkill Branch The abandoned Schuylkill Branch bridge over the Schuylkill River at Lower Pottsgrove, photographed in 2011 The Schuylkill Branch was a rail line owned and operated by the former Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. In the following years, the Pennsylvania quietly obtained more stock, both directly and through railroads it controlled, primarily the Wabash. (.1 cu. ft.), Susquehanna Coal Company / Minute Books, 1869-1940. During routine screening by Transportation Security Administration agents, Muffley's bag set off an alarm indicating it contained suspicious items, according to a criminal complaint. By 1970, this had dwindled to 927 miles of road and 1963 miles of track. (3.5 cu. Morgan. From the beginning, the LVRR's New York City passengers had used the Pennsylvania Railroad's terminal and ferry at Jersey City, but in 1913 the PRR terminated that agreement, so the LVRR contracted with the CNJ for use of its terminal and ferry, which was expanded to handle the increased number of passengers. ft.), Northern Central Railroad / Committee Minute Book, 1875-1914. The State of New Jersey passed legislation that allowed the LVRR to consolidate its New Jersey railroads into one company; the Perth Amboy and Bound Brook and the Bound Brook and Easton were merged to form a new railroad company called the Easton and Amboy Railroad (or Easton & Amboy Railroad Company). It was opened on June 11, 1855, between Easton, Pennsylvania, and Allentown, Pennsylvania, passing through Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. (bridge still exists today. (1.3 cu. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Then in 1887 the Lehigh Valley Railroad obtained a lease on the Southern Central Railroad (the LVRR previously had trackage rights on the railroad starting in 1870), which had a route from Waverly northward into the Finger Lakes region. (.1 cu. So, its motto, Route Of The Black Diamond, was quite befitting and led directly to both its rise in prosperity and downfall into bankruptcy. ft.), Mifflin and Centre County Railroad / Monthly Construction Accounts, 1862-1869. (3 cu. of F. Thomson and A.J. Condition: Used. In 1973, the United States Congress acted to create a bill to nationalize all bankrupt railroads which included the LV. 1906 Antique Lehigh Valley Railroad Map Vintage Lehigh Valley Railway Map Birthday Gift for Dad Anniversary 527 ad vertisement by plaindealing. (5 cu. That project failed, but the lands were later used for the LVRR's own terminal in 1889. (1 cu. ft.), Philadelphia and Erie Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. No comprehensive finding aid exists for these records. In 1896 the very early film Black Diamond Express was produced by Thomas A. Edison's company Kinetoscope. Finally in 1900, the LVRR purchased the National Docks Railway outright. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Minute Books of the Road Committee, 1847-1948. [46] It managed to acquire more than 85% of all outstanding shares, and from that time the LVRR was little more than a division of the PRR. V2A en:Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway; V2B en:Greenville and Hudson Railway; V2C en:National Docks Railway; V2D en:National Docks and New Jersey Junction Railway; V2E en:Irvington Railroad; Short lines . Lehigh Valley Railroad Station was a beautiful building that dated back to 1890. Then the CNJ opposed the LVRR's attempt to cross its line at Caven Point. The line became known as the Lehigh Line during Conrail ownership. At Three Bridges, New Jersey, in Readington Township, the line interchanges with Black River and Western Railroad. In 1875, the LVRR financed the addition of a third rail to the Erie Railroad main line so that cars could roll directly from colliery to the port at Buffalo. Coverage includes locations in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. The hotel remained with the company until 1909, when it was bought by residents of the surrounding cottages. ft.), Pittsburgh, Chartiers and Yougheogheny Railway / Annual Reports, 1892-1910. ft.), Kensington and Tacony Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. (.11 cu. ft.), PRR / VP of Law / Riot Docket and Ejectment Suits, 1877-1895. (12 cu. The line is part of Norfolk Southern's Harrisburg Division and it is part of Norfolk Southern's Crescent Corridor, a railroad corridor. ft.), PRR / VP of Special Services / Penn Central Merger Files, 1963-1965. (.25 cu. (.02 cu. Train Cars and Work Equip. Passengers preferred the convenience of automobiles to trains, and airlines much later provided faster long-distance travel than trains. It also continued to grow and develop its routes in Pennsylvania. Canal, 1901. (.15 cu. (6.05 cu. (1 cu. ft.), Leechburg Company / Minute Books, 1937-1954. The first locomotive purchased by the LVRR was the "Delaware", a wood-burning 4-4-0 built by Richard Norris & Sons of Philadelphia in 1855. (.2 cu. (.25 cu. United States (except New York) States. Order #20 of ICC, 1916-1921. The 1860s saw an expansion of the LVRR northward to the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, area and up the Susquehanna River to the New York state line. Construction of a rail line to the New York state line started immediately and, in 1867, the line was complete from Wilkes-Barre to Waverly, New York, where coal was transferred to the broad gauge Erie Railroad and shipped to western markets through Buffalo, New York. These locomotives were also used in freight service during and after the era of LVRR passenger service. {#31.18}, MG-416 Aero Service Corporation Photographs, MG-425 Ebasco Environmental Company Aerial Photographs, Baldwin Locomotive Works, Other Record Holders, PHMC Collections Management Policy Standards, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Access Policy, Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, Bangor & Portland Division, including Martins Creek Branch, Limestone Spur, Wind Gap Branch, Atlantic BranchandBangor Branch, Valuation orders and related records, 1914-1934. Pennsylvania. (.03 cu. (.3 cu. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / Valuable Papers Files, 1850-1966. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate & Taxation / Reports on Coal and Coal Mines, 1861-1864. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. ft.), Enola Realty Company / Journals, 1905-1932. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846, for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, wares, merchandise and minerals[1] in Pennsylvania and the railroad was incorporated and established on September 20, 1847, as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company. These operators include: The Lehigh Line was the Lehigh Valley Railroad's first rail line and served as the main line. In pursuit of that strategy, the 1868 purchases of the Hazleton Railroad and the Lehigh Luzerne Railroad brought 1,800 acres (7.3km2) of coal land to the LVRR, and additional lands were acquired along branches of the LVRR. Originally incorporated as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company. ft.), Columbia and Port Deposit Railway / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. (3 cu. 985, Last edited on 26 February 2023, at 16:09, Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad, Pennsylvania and New York Canal & Railroad Company, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway, New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway, Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad, Lehigh Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, "Lehigh Valley Railroad to Retires $2,489,000 in 66-Year-Old Bonds", "Pennsylvania Railroad Seeking all the Stock of Lehigh Valley", http://www.parailfan.com/NS/ns_lehigh_line_ett.pdf, "Last of the Railroad - Era Passes Tonight as Lehigh Ends Service", "E. E. Loomis is Dead. That southern field held the largest reserves of anthracite in Pennsylvania and accounted for a large percentage of the total production. In 1927, Leonor Fresnel Loree, president of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, had a vision for a new fifth trunk line between the East and West, consisting of the Wabash Railroad, the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway, and the LVRR. (.02 cu. Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania Railroad Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh This 5-railroad network will remain essentially unchanged for the first half of the 20th Century. At Catasauqua, the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad transported coal, ore, limestone and iron for furnaces of the Thomas Iron Company, the Lehigh Crane Iron Company, the Lehigh Valley Iron Works, the Carbon Iron Company, and others. (.55 cu. Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Library / Library Reference Materials, ca 1834-1963. 6 Replies 6377 Views by lvrr325 Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:20 pm: Eventually, the Easton and Amboy Railroad was absorbed into the parent Lehigh Valley Railroad. [citation needed]. :-) Disclaimers: ft.), PRR / President / Presidential Correspondence of M.W. These tracks were laid and the Easton and Amboy Railroad was opened for business on June 28, 1875, with hauling coal. The 1880s continued to be a period of growth, and the LVRR made important acquisitions in New York, expanded its reach into the southern coal field of Pennsylvania which had hitherto been the monopoly of the Reading, and successfully battled the CNJ over terminal facilities in Jersey City. Top of page Skip to main content [16] After the LVRR opened its line, the Lehigh & Susquehanna extended to Phillipsburg, New Jersey, and connected with the CNJ and the Morris and Essex Railroad in 1868. VDOMDHTMLtml> Map of the Pennsylvania, Reading, and Lehigh Valley Railroads, and their connections. [13] With these acquisitions, the LVRR obtained the right to mine coal as well as transport it. He served as chairman of the board while the presidency was vacant until PRR takeover. (.1 cu. On June 21, 1970, the Penn Central declared bankruptcy and sought bankruptcy protection. ft.), Enola Realty Company / Property Sales Accounts, 1905-1914. The Lehigh Valley Railroad was another of the many Northeastern carriers built to move anthracite coal from eastern Pennsylvania. The interstate highways helped the trucking industry offer door-to-door service, and the St. Lawrence Seaway allowed grain shipments to bypass the railways and go directly to overseas markets. The restructuring allowed the LVRR to extend the maturity of its mortgages, but it needed to repeat the process in 1950. (2.25 cu. ft.), VP of Real Estate / Letter Press Books of W.H. Cassat, 1893-1903. On April 1, 1976, major portions of the assets of the bankrupt Lehigh Valley Railroad were acquired by Conrail. The majority of the Lehigh Line is now owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) and retains much of its original route in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, although it no longer goes into New York City. All structured data from the file namespace is available under the. Dates / Origin Date Issued: 1887 Place: Philadelphia? Construction commenced in 1872 as soon the Easton and Amboy was formed; coal docks at Perth Amboy were soon constructed, and most of the line from Easton to Perth Amboy was graded and rails laid. The CNJ, anticipating that the LVRR intended to create its own line across New Jersey, protected itself by leasing the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad (L&S) to ensure a continuing supply of coal traffic. It was located along the Hamilton Street Bridge in Allentown. (13 cu. This is currently the last time the line has been downsized. Newly elected president Eben B. Thomas, formerly of the Erie, and his board of directors represented the combined interests of those railroads.[36]. [6] To accommodate the 4ft 10in (1,473mm) gauge of the Belvidere, the cars were furnished with wheels having wide treads that operated on both roads.[7]. ft.), Manor Real Estate and Trust Company / Indexes to Minutes, 1870-1954. At Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the North Pennsylvania Railroad which was completed during the Summer of 1856, provided a rail connection to Philadelphia and thus brought the LVRR a direct line to Philadelphia. Map of the Pennsylvania, Reading, and Lehigh Valley Railroads, and their connections. (.16 cu. Free shipping for many products! (21 cu. ft.), which was maintained by the Secretary's office. ft.), PRR / V.P. ft.), Suquehanna, Bloomsburg, and Berwick Railroad - Ledger, 1902-1904. (3 cu. Map of Lehigh Valley Railroad's terminal at Jersey City Map of Lehigh Valley Railroad's Roselle and South Plainfield Railway In 1880, the LVRR established the Lehigh Valley Transportation Line to operate a fleet of ships on the Great Lakes with terminals in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Duluth. ft.), A publication by Thomas Townsend Taber (Thomas T. Taber III) entitled, PRR / Comptroller / Confidential Annual Reports of Affiliated Corporations, 1892-1959. (.01 cu. File history. Conversely, the other railroads' obligations to pay those fees to the Penn Central were not waived. (.1 cu. [1] During the majority of its ownership under the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the line was known as the Lehigh Valley Mainline, starting in the 1930s. [18] For most of its length, it ran parallel to the LVRR. ft.), Germantown, Norristown, and Phoenixville Railroad / Minute Book, 1881-1886. (.3 cu. (.02 cu. By controlling supply, the coal combination attempted to keep prices and profits high. The most important market in the east was New York City, but the LVRR was dependent on the CNJ and the Morris Canal for transport to the New York tidewater. [11] Over the next dozen years the railroad acquired other large tracts of land: 13,000 acres (53km2) in 1870,[9] 5,800 acres (23km2) in 1872,[12] and acquisition of the Philadelphia Coal Company in 1873 with its large leases in the Mahanoy basin. The LVRR found that the route of the Morris Canal was impractical for use as a railroad line, so in 1872 the LVRR purchased the dormant charter of the Perth Amboy and Bound Brook Railroad which had access to the Perth Amboy, New Jersey, harbor, and added to it a new charter, the Bound Brook and Easton Railroad. Two final blows fell in the 1950s: the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1956, better known as the Interstate Highway Act, and the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959.