page_title: Central Railroad of New Jersey
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Central Railroad of New Jersey / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: New York City Railroads circa 1900
context_page_description: The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It filed for bankruptcy three times; in 1939, 1947 and on March 22, 1967, the CNJ filed for bankruptcy for the final time. It foreshadowed the rest of New Jersey's railroads, but not by much. It then pulled out of Pennsylvania completely in 1972. While most of the passenger services, structures and equipment were picked up by the State of New Jersey, later NJ Transit, it was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of the northeastern United States. Only two of the railroad's steam locomotives were preserved: CNJ No. 592 & CNJ No. 113; the latter is the only one that is still operational.
  The CNJ's main line had a major presence in New Jersey. Most of the main line is now used by the Raritan Valley Line passenger service and trackage from the CNJ main line in Phillipsburg, New Jersey became part of the Lehigh Line under Conrail; the Lehigh Line is officially the former main line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
context_section_description: The Elizabethtown and Somerville Railroad was chartered on February 9, 1831, to build from Elizabeth on the Newark Bay (with a steamboat transfer to New York City) west to Somerville. The line to Plainfield was completed in March 1839, connecting to the New Jersey Rail Road in Elizabeth. Extensions took it west to Dunellen in 1840, just east of Bound Brook in 1841 and to Somerville in 1842.
  The Somerville and Easton Railroad was chartered on February 26, 1847, to continue the line west to Easton, Pennsylvania. The first extension, to Whitehouse, opened in 1848 and was leased to the Elizabethtown and Somerville Railroad. On February 11, 1849, the Elizabethtown and Somerville Railroad bought the Somerville and Easton Railroad, and on February 26 the two companies were consolidated as the Central Railroad of New Jersey. 
  The rest of the line to Phillipsburg opened in 1852, and on September 8, 1855, the upper level of the Lehigh Valley Railroad's Easton Bridge over the Delaware River, extended the CNJ to Easton. At that time, Lehigh Valley coal trains began running over the CNJ to Elizabeth. A similar operation with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, joining at Hampton, began May 27, 1856. This required the addition of a third rail as the DL&W was 6 ft (1,829 mm) broad gauge.
  On December 1, 1859, the CNJ arranged to run over the New Jersey Rail Road to the latter's terminal in Jersey City. That operation began December 19, and included a third rail for DL&W trains.
  The South Branch Railroad, controlled by the CNJ, opened July 1, 1864, as a branch from Somerville to Flemington. The CNJ's extension to its new terminal in Jersey City, including the first CRRNJ Newark Bay Bridge, opened on July 29, 1864, with a ferry transfer to Cortlandt Street in New York City, ending operations over the NJRR. On July 23, 1869, the Newark and New York Railroad opened, providing a straight route from downtown Newark to the CNJ's Jersey City terminal. The Newark Branch, running north from Elizabethport to the N&NY in Newark, opened June 7, 1872.
caption: Map of CNJ and other terminals in New York region ca. 1900
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