Ironton Rail-trail
   HOME
*





Ironton Rail-trail
The Ironton Rail Trail is a rail trail that spans in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The trail was made from tracks of the defunct Ironton Railroad and includes a paved loop. The trail spreads across Whitehall Township, Coplay and North Whitehall. It is a very popular trail in the Lehigh Valley for walkers, bikers, runners and dog walkers. The trail has many events such as a 10k race held every year. History The Ironton Railroad was originally chartered in 1859 and built during the 1860s. It transported iron ore from mines in Ironton, Pennsylvania to the Thomas Iron Company plant in Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania. The railroad was acquired by the Reading Company in 1923 and was consolidated into Conrail in 1976. However, the railroad was ultimately closed in 1984, and tracks were removed in 1990. Right of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belongi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Lehigh County (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Lechaa Kaundi'') is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 374,557.Lehigh County
at U.S. Census Quick Facts
Its county seat is , the state's third largest city after and . Lehigh County and
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania
North Whitehall Township is a township (Pennsylvania), township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The population of North Whitehall Township was 15,655 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of Allentown, Pennsylvania, Allentown in the Lehigh Valley, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th-most populous Metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan area in the U.S. as of the 2020 census. North Whitehall Township is located northwest of Allentown, northwest of Philadelphia, and west of New York City. Geography The township is located in northeastern Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County. According to the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau, it has a total area of , of which is land and , or 1.56%, of which is water. It is drained by the Lehigh River, which separates it from Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton County. The township has a hot-summer humid continental climate (''Dfa'') and the hardiness zone is 6b. Average monthly temperatures in Ir ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Coplay, Pennsylvania
Coplay is a borough in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Coplay's population was 3,348 at the 2020 census. It is located six miles (10 km) northwest of Allentown. The borough is part of the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. as of the 2020 census. Geography Coplay is located at (40.670521, -75.495395). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of , of which is land and (3.08%) is water. Coplay is situated along the Lehigh River, approximately north of Allentown. History Coplay was part of the of land John Jacob Schreiber bought from the William Penn heirs in 1740. For a long time it was known as Schreibers. Later it was known as the Lehigh Valley, because of the Lehigh Valley Iron Furnaces that were located here. Lehigh Valley was then changed to Coplay, derived from "Kolapechka", the son of the Indian chief Paxanosa, who lived at the head of the creek nea ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Rail Trail
A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcars (rails with trails), or with disused track. As shared-use paths, rail trails are primarily for non-motorized traffic including pedestrians, bicycles, horseback riders, skaters, and cross-country skiers, although snowmobiles and ATVs may be allowed. The characteristics of abandoned railways—gentle grades, well-engineered rights of way and structures (bridges and tunnels), and passage through historical areas—lend themselves to rail trails and account for their popularity. Many rail trails are long-distance trails, while some shorter rail trails are known as greenways or linear parks. Rail trails around the world Americas Bermuda The Bermuda Railway ceased to operate as such when the only carrier to exist in Bermuda folded in 1948. ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Ironton Railroad
The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984. History The railroad was originally incorporated on March 4, 1859, to run from Balliettsville to a connection with the Lehigh Valley Railroad or the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad. The charter also allowed the railroad to own land along the right-of-way containing iron ore or limestone. Its charter was amended on May 16, 1861, to change the terminus from Balliettsville to Ironton, and was also given the power to buy connecting branch railroads and lay its own branches of up to to iron ore mines. The principal reason for building the railroad was to haul iron ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania
Whitehall Township is a township with home rule status in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The township's population was 26,738 as of the 2010 census. Whitehall Township is a suburb of Allentown in the Lehigh Valley metropolitan region, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. as of the 2020 census. The township is north of Allentown, northwest of Philadelphia, and west of New York City. History 17th and 18th centuries The province of Pennsylvania was created in 1681 when King Charles II granted a tract of land in America to William Penn. After the death of Penn, his sons, John, Thomas, and Richard, became the owners of Pennsylvania. The Lenape Indians deeded that part of Lehigh County lying between the Lehigh (South) Mountain and the Blue Mountains to Penn's sons in 1736. A wave of immigrants from Germany's Palatinate settled in Whitehall Township, the first being Jacob Kohler, who settled in the vicinity of Egyp ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Lehigh Valley
The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the north by Blue Mountain, to the south by South Mountain, to the west by Lebanon Valley, and to the east by the Delaware River on Pennsylvania's eastern border with Warren County, New Jersey. The Valley is about long and wide. The Lehigh Valley's largest city is Allentown, the third largest city in Pennsylvania and the county seat of Lehigh County, with a population of 125,845 residents as of the 2020 census. The Allentown-Bethlehem- Easton metropolitan area, which includes the Lehigh Valley, is currently Pennsylvania's third most populous metropolitan area after those of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the nation's 68th largest metropolitan area with a population of 861,889 residents as of 2020. Lehigh County is among Pennsylvania's ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Ironton, Pennsylvania
Ironton is a village in North Whitehall Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Lehigh Valley, which has a population of 861,899 and was the 68th-most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. as of the 2020 census. It uses the Coplay ZIP Code of 18037 and is drained by the Coplay Creek into the Lehigh River The Lehigh River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania. The river flows in a generally southward pat .... Unincorporated communities in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania {{LehighCountyPA-geo-stub ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Thomas Iron Company
The Thomas Iron Company was a major iron-making firm in Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania from its organization in 1854 until its decline and eventual dismantling in the early 20th century. The firm was named in honor of its founder, David Thomas, who had emigrated to the United States in 1839 to introduce hot blast iron making in the Lehigh Valley, and now embarked on an independent ironmaking venture. Thomas Iron Company's main and original plant was in Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania, which grew up around it. The company also came to own blast furnaces and railroads elsewhere in the Lehigh Valley and mines in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Changes in the iron industry in the early Twentieth Century left Thomas Iron struggling to compete, and after a failed attempt at modernization and revival from 1913 to 1916, the company's assets were sold and largely dismantled during the 1920s. Origins David Thomas, a Welsh ironmaster, had been br ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania
Hokendauqua is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Whitehall Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The population of Hokendauqua was 3,340 as of the 2020 census. Hokendauqua is a suburb of Allentown, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. as of the 2020 census. The word Hokendauqua is shortened to "Hokey" (pronounced "hockey") in local dialect. It uses the Whitehall ZIP code of 18052. Geography Hokendauqua is located in northeastern Lehigh County at (40.647895, -75.481828), on the east side of Whitehall Township. The borough of Coplay is directly to the north. To the northwest is the census-designated place, Stiles, and the village of West Catasauqua is directly to the south. The borough of North Catasauqua is to the east across the Lehigh River in Northampton County; a bridge connects Hokendauqua to North Catasauqua. Pennsylvan ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Reading Company
The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly called the Reading Railroad, and logotyped as Reading Lines, the Reading Company was a railroad holding company for the majority of its existence and was a single railroad during its later years. It operated service as Reading Railway System and was a successor to the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company, founded in 1833. Until the decline in anthracite loadings in the Coal Region after World War II, it was one of the most prosperous corporations in the United States. Competition with the modern trucking industry that used the interstate highway system for short-distance transportation of goods, also known as short hauls, compounded the company's problems, forcing it into bankruptcy in 1971. Its railroad operations were merged into Conrail i ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Conrail
Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do business as an asset management and network services provider in three Shared Assets Areas that were excluded from the division of its operations during its acquisition by CSX Corporation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. The federal government created Conrail to take over the potentially-profitable lines of multiple bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and Erie Lackawanna Railway. After railroad regulations were lifted by the 4R Act and the Staggers Act, Conrail began to turn a profit in the 1980s and was privatized in 1987. The two remaining Class I railroads in the East, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), agreed in 1997 to acquire the system and split it into two roughly-equal parts (a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]