History of Transportation in New Jersey - Essay Example

From 1860, gradually the canal grew even more to permit 70 tons of boats to pass by. However, traffic reached to the climax in 1866 when the canal conceded about 889,220 tons of cargo. The canal was leased in 1871 by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, mainly to give the railroad the use of the expensive mortal properties which was located in Phillipsburg. In 1871, the canal started to turn down. It finally got abandoned in 1924 when the state of New Jersey took control. In the mid of 1924 to 1929, a large part of the canal was dismantled.

(New Jersey's Great Northwest Skylands, 2008). Railroads that played a major role in the transportation history include the New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The agreement of New York Central Railroad took place at March 14, 1836. It is one of the first railroads in United States. New York Central Railroad was known as the New York Central in its exposure. It was a railroad which was operated in the Northeastern United States. It served a huge part of Northeast which included widespread tracking path in various states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and many more.

It was mainly connected with Chicago and Boston. The Grand Central Terminal of New York Railroad is also known to be one of the best existing landmarks. However, in 1986, it combined with its previous rival, namely the Pennsylvania Railroad to shape the Penn Central. But unfortunately, the company got bankrupted and was taken over by the federal government and got united with the Conrail. The first four track and long distance railroad in the world were from New York Central namely Water Level Route.

(Encyclopedia, 2004). On the other hand, the Pennsylvania Railroad was founded in 1846 and was an American railroad. It was leading railroad by traffic and profits in United States, all the way through the 20th century. At one time it was the biggest publicly business corporation in the world. It controlled about 10,000 miles of rail line. The Pennsylvania Railroad or PPR was united with at least about 800 rail lines and various companies. It still embraces a record for the greatest incessant dividend in the history as it paid out yearly dividends to the shareholder continuously for more than hundred years.

The Pennsylvania Railroad constructed various grand passenger stations in different major cities, including Broad Street Station, Union Station, Penn Station, Penn Station which was built in Newark, 30th Street Station and Union Station. It served for the PPR's wide ranging passenger service. (Pennsylvania Railways). However, people like Cornelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie are among those people who have supported the construction of early transportation. If we compare both of them, Cornelius Vanderbilt was a thriving man due to his reputation of being a reliable boatman and secondly for charging fares lower than his rivals.

He is also known as the transportation tycoon. In 1812, Vanderbilt got a label of Commodore because he was in command of the leading boat on the Hudson River. He sent steamboats where shipping was started and started to work on the ferry route flanked by New Brunswick and New York City. In 1840's, Cornelius Vanderbilt had about 100 of steamboats and employed people more than any other industry in United States. When he was in his 70's, he saw that the future is in the railroads, so