Archbald, Pennsylvania

Archbald, Pennsylvania, (pop. 6,291) was originally known as White Oak Run. The name was changed in 1846 in honor of James Archbald, a mechanical engineer with The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company.

The United States needed shipping and transportation facilities for the anthracite coal mined by regional coal mines. That need was filled in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, by The Delaware & Hudson (D & H) Canal Company. D & H was responsible for the first direct transportation link between the Pennsylvania anthracite fields via the Hudson River to New York Harbor. Loaded boats were towed by steamboats, but D & H innovatively used a 16 mile gravity and inclined plane railroad in the operation. By 1839, boats of a 30-ton capacity were common. By 1854, more than 1,400 boats, averaging 100-tons each, were operating on the D & H. The Erie Railroad began providing major competition in coal transportation in the 1860's and the D & H Canal stopped its operations in 1899.

The decline of the Delaware and Hudson Canal commenced in 1858 when it began to lose traffic to the Erie Railroad. To compete with this new transportation route, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company began construction of its own steam railroad. During the 1870s and 1880s, the company increased its railroad activities. By 1890 the Delaware and Hudson Railroad was a major link in the network between Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada. However, in 1899 traffic ceased on the D & H Canal.

Archbald, PA, is proud home to the World's Largest Glacial Pothole Archbald Pothole State Park.

Steamtown, U.S.A, Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza, East Stroudsburg University, the J.J. Ferrara Performing Arts Center, the historic Keystone Theatre among others, are all part of the rich cultural diversity of Archbald's Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazleton metropolitan area.

As part of the Archbald Borough's economic development plan, PEI Power Park Industrial Site is well underway, and a new industrial/business park at the Pompey site is being explored.

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