NJRAILS.TRIPOD.COM

When people think of the Garden State, rarely does railroading come to mind...unless they are rail fans or look out of the plane window while landing at Newark Airport... However, the state's history and that of railroads are tightly linked. During the industrial revolution in the US, most of the manufacturing was in the North East. The materials to make these products, the products themselves and the fuel for this industry all evolved along with the railroads... In addition the to the industrial reliance on the steel rails, the bulk of the state was agricultural and nicely centered between the large population centers of the 19th century. During this era, railroads like the Morris & Essex, Camden & Amboy and Elizabethtown & Somerville formed the backbone of these first generation railroads.