Railroads - Part 1

Railroads played a very important role in the creation of Perth Amboy as a industrial city. It has been said that without the Railroad Perth Amboy may have never been the same as we knew it.

The Charter of" The Perth Amboy Railroad Company," of New Jersey, authorizes the construction of a railroad, about 18 miles in length, between the Central Railroad of New Jersey, at or near Boundbrook, and Perth Amboy.The road will pass over a district of country extremely favorable for its construction, with a level from its western extremity, as far as Metuchin; and a descending 'grade from thence to the Sound, at Perth Amboy. Perth Amboy is a port of entry, situated at the junction of the Raritan River with Staten Island Sound, and at the head of Raritan Bay, 14 miles west of Sandy Hook. The harbor is capacious and safe, with great depth of water, and of easy access from the sea and from New-York, by a channel in no part less than 21 feet in depth, and without a rock. The harbor is not obstructed by ice in winter, as is evidenced by the fact, that the freight and passage boats of the Cam­den and Amboy Railroad ran to and from New York the whole winter of 1855-6, when even the Chesapeake Bay, and many others, were for a long time closed by ice.Perth Amboy is the nearest and best harbor on the Atlantic sea-coast, accessible by available railroad connections with the anthracite coal districts of Pennsylvania, and with the western lines of railroads stretching into the interior, in their various ramifications to the far West, The termination of the Reading Railroad, at Richmond, on the Delaware River, is 93! miles from Pottsville, within the coal-measures of the lower coal-field, with 48 miles of canal navigation, and 591 miles of river navigation, to arrive at. New York, a total of 196 miles.Perth Amboy is 96 miles by the New Jersey Central, Lehigh Valley and P. Amboy Railroads with 24 miles river navigation-a total of 120 miles to arrive at New York. from the book of "Perth Amboy Railroad Co."