Lehigh Valley Railroad Map 1903 Poster

From www.railphotoexpress.biz- Lehigh Valley Railroad Map 1903- The Lehigh Valley Railroad (reporting mark LV) was one of a number of railroads built in the northeastern United States primarily to haul anthracite coal. It was authorized April 21, 1846 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and incorporated September 20, 1847 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company. On January 7, 1853, the name was changed to Lehigh Valley Railroad.It was sometimes known as the Route of the Black Diamond, named after the anthracite it transported. At the time, anthracite was transported by boat down the Lehigh River; the railroad was meant to be faster transportation. As of 31 Dec 1925, 1363.7 miles of road, 3533.3 miles of track; as of 31 Dec 1970, 927 miles of road and 1963 miles of track. The route was surveyed and grading started in 1850, but progress was slow and financing was insufficient. The railroad's growth occurred after Asa Packer invested in the railroad in 1852, and it was renamed the Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR). With Packer's backing and leadership his chief engineer Robert H. Sayre completed the road in 1855 from Mauch Chunk (present-day Jim Thorpe) to the Delaware River at Easton, where coal could be shipped to Philadelphia on the Delaware Division Canal or transported across the river to Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where the Morris Canal and the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) could carry it to the New York market. At Easton the LVRR constructed a double-decked bridge across the Delaware River for connections to the CNJ and the Belvidere Delaware Railroad in Phillipsburg Following the Great Depression, the railroad had a few periods of prosperity, but was clearly in a slow decline. On April 1, 1976, major portions of the assets of the bankrupt Lehigh Valley Railroad were acquired by Conrail.