Editing Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania (section)

===Railroad growth and coal shipping===
After the Pennsylvania Canal Commission smoothed the way, Lehigh Coal & Navigation built the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad (L&S) from [[Pittston, Pennsylvania|Pittston]] to [[Ashley, Pennsylvania|Ashley]], building the [[Ashley Planes]] [[inclined railway]] and linked that by rail from [[Mountain Top, Pennsylvania|Mountain Top]] to [[White Haven, Pennsylvania|White Haven]] at the head of the canal's upper works, referred to as the Grand Lehigh Canal, whose navigations shortened the Lehigh Gorge, now located in the [[Lehigh Gorge State Park]] route, cutting the distance from [[Philadelphia]] to [[Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania|Wilkes-Barre]] and the [[Wyoming Valley]] coal deposits by over {{convert|100|mi|-1}}. This placed Mauch Chunk in the center of a nexus of transportation in country tough to travel through. When floods wiped out many of the upper Lehigh Canal works in 1861, the L&S Railroad was extended through the gap to supplant the canal, and the so-called switchback-twisted backtrack through [[Avoca, Pennsylvania|Avoca]], with the improved engines of the day, enabled two-way steam locomotive traction and traffic despite the steep grades. Owner LC&N Company's headquarters was built across the street in Mauch Chunk from the L&S Railroad's stylish brick passenger station that was soon boarding passengers onto trains from New York and Philadelphia to [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]]. The Central Railroad of New Jersey eventually took over the L&S and the station. The Lehigh Valley Railroad arrived on the river's east bank at East Mauch Chunk in 1855.,<ref>Jom Thorpe/Lehigh Valley Station wikipedia</ref>