Editing Port Jervis, New York (section)

===Coming of the railroad===
The first rail line to run through Port Jervis was the [[New York & Erie Railroad]], which in 1832 was chartered to run from [[Piermont, New York]], on the [[Hudson River]] in [[Rockland County, New York|Rockland County]], to [[Lake Erie]].  Ground was broken in 1835, but construction was delayed by a [[Panic of 1837|nationwide financial panic]], and did not start again until 1838.  The line was completed in 1851, and the first passenger train &ndash; with [[Millard Fillmore|President Millard Fillmore]] and former [[United States Senator]] [[Daniel Webster]] on board &ndash; came through the city on May 14.  The railroad went through a number of name changes, becoming the [[Erie Railroad]] in 1897.<ref name=rr>[http://www.minisink.org/rrpjhis.html "Railroads of Port Jervis"]. Minisink Valley Historical Society website</ref>

A second railroad, the Port Jervis and Monticello Railroad, later leased to the [[New York, Ontario and Western Railway]] (O&W), opened in 1868, running northeast out of the city, and eventually connecting to [[Kingston, New York]], [[Weehawken, New Jersey]] and eastern connections.<ref name=rr />

Like the D&H Canal, the railroads brought new prosperity to Port Jervis in the form of increased trade and investment in the community from the outside. However, the competition by the railroad, which could deliver products faster, hastened the decline of the canal, which ceased operation in 1898. The railroads were the basis of the city's economy for the coming decades.  Port Jervis became Erie's division center between [[Jersey City, New Jersey]] and [[Susquehanna, Pennsylvania]], and by 1922, 20 passenger trains went through the city every day. More than 2,500 Erie RR employees made their homes there.<ref name=age />

The railroads began to decline after the [[Great Depression]].<ref name=age>[http://www.minisink.org/histpj.html "Port Jervis and the Gilded Age"], Minisink Valley Historical Society</ref> A shift in transportation accelerated after World War II with the federal subsidy of the [[Interstate Highway System]] and increased competition from trucking companies.  One of the first [[Class I railroad]]s to shut down was the O&W, on March 29, 1957, leaving Port Jervis totally reliant on the Erie. A few years later, in 1960, the Erie, also on a shaky financial footing, merged with [[Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad]] to become the [[Erie Lackawanna]].  Railroad restructuring continued and in 1976, the Erie Lackawana became part of [[Conrail]], along with a number of other struggling railroads, such as the [[Penn Central Railroad|Penn Central]].<ref name=rr />  Since the breakup of Conrail, the trackage around Port Jervis has been controlled by [[Norfolk Southern]]. The decline of the railroads was an economic blow to Port Jervis. The city has struggled to find a new economic basis.