New York & Fort Lee Rail Road Company (Signed by Cornelius Vanderbilt)

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Historical Context

In 1861, six years before the organization of the National Storage Company, the New York & Bulls Ferry Railroad was incorporated. The following year it was reincorporated as the New York & Fort Lee Railroad, but it was not opened until 1870. It then ran from a connection with the Erie in Hoboken or Jersey City to a point in the present Weehawken yard of the West Shore Railroad, a distance of about 2 1/2 miles. It crossed the Lackawanna, but there is no indication that it was intended as a belt-line railroad.

When the West Shore was built in the 80's the tracks of the New York & Fort Lee Railroad became enveloped in the Weehawken yard, and the line was leased to the New Jersey Junction Railroad, which the New York Central, the new owner of the West Shore, organized in 1886 to effect a connection with the roads to the south. By the merging of other lines the New Jersey Junction reached the Lackawanna, the Erie and the Pennsylvania, and then the Lehigh Valley brought itself and the Central of New Jersey into the system with its National Docks & New Jersey Connecting Railway.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into leadership positions in inland and coastal shipping, then invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry, effectively transforming the geography of the United States.

As one of the richest Americans in history and wealthiest figures overall, Vanderbilt was the patriarch of the wealthy and influential Vanderbilt family. He provided the initial gift to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. For his monopoly on shipping and the railroads, facilitated by political manipulation, Vanderbilt is often described as a "robber baron".

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