Existing comment:
Scranton Becomes a Rail Town
In 1849, the Scranton Company purchased the charter of the long dormant Liggett's Gap Railroad, the first proposed rail line in the Lackawanna Valley. Although chartered in 1832, construction on the route over the Moosic Mountains via Clark's Summit to Great Bend had not yet started.
Ground was broken in May 1850 with a track gauge of six feet to facilitate interchange with the Erie Railroad at Great Bend. In April 1851, the company's name was changed to the Lackawanna & Western Railroad and by mid-October a fifty-six-and-a-half mile line was opened to traffic. |