Lehigh & New England Railroad
L&NE system map
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| Reporting mark | LNE |
|---|---|
| Locale |
New Jersey Pennsylvania New York |
| Dates of operation | 1895–1961 |
| Successor | Central Railroad of New Jersey |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Length | 217 miles (349 kilometers) |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
The Lehigh & New England Railroad (reporting mark LNE) was a Class I railroad located in Northeastern United States that acted as a bridge line. It was the second notable U.S. railroad to file for abandonment in its entirety, the first being the New York, Ontario & Western Railway.
Around 1868, serious proposals for the crossing of the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie began to appear. A charter for the Poughkeepsie Bridge Company was obtained in 1871, and the company was organized before the end of May. The charter was amended to allow placing piers in the river by 1872 (despite fierce opposition from navigation interests), and the company began raising funds. Through the influence of Andrew Carnegie, Pennsylvania Railroad president J. Edgar Thomson was persuaded to personally invest in the project.
This funding led to a surge of activity. The line was to be carried from Harrisburg to the crossing of the Delaware River at Portland by the South Mountain Railroad. The South Mountain and Boston Railroad was chartered in New Jersey on March 13, 1873 and also in New York to continue the line via Poughkeepsie and Boston Corners to the Massachusetts state line. At the state line, an extension of the planned Massachusetts Central Railroad would connect, taking traffic to Boston. Grading began on the various lines (known, in the aggregate, as the South Mountain and Boston Railroad), and the cornerstone was laid for a bridge pier at Poughkeepsie. However, the Panic of 1873 and the death of Thomson in May 1874 and loss of his personal support brought the project to a halt.
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