Editing Asa Packer (section)

=== Railroad ===
Packer urged the [[Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company]] to adopt a steam railway as a coal carrier, but the project was not then considered feasible.{{sfn|Yates|1983|p=13}} In 1851, he became the major stockholder of the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad Company, which became the [[Lehigh Valley Railroad]] in January 1853, and they built a railway line from Mauch Chunk to [[Easton, Pennsylvania|Easton]] between November 1852 and September 1855.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pagenweb.org/~luzerne/lvrr100.htm|title=Lehigh Valley Railroad}}</ref> Construction commenced on the Mauch Chunk-Easton line just as Packer's five year charter was to expire.{{sfn|Yates|1983|p=13}} He built railways connecting the main line with coal mines in [[Luzerne County, Pennsylvania|Luzerne]] and [[Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania|Schuylkill]] counties, and he planned and built the extension of the line into the [[Susquehanna Valley]] and thence into [[New York (state)|New York state]] to connect at [[Waverly, Tioga County, New York|Waverly]] with the [[Erie Railroad]].<ref name="EB1911"/> Among his clerks and associates during this period was future businessman and soldier [[George Washington Helme]].