19th century The name was first used by
Conrail to designate a freight railway line that served several chemical plants in the area. The rail line was started by the
Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Railroad in 1871. However, the company ran out of capital during the
panic of 1873 and was purchased by the
Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ). The CNJ operated both freight and passenger service along the line into the twentieth century, referring to it as the Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Branch. Passenger trains to
Bay Head Junction,
Atlantic Highlands,
Freehold and
Atlantic City (including the
Blue Comet) utilized the line. There were passenger stations at
Newark Airport,
Elizabethport,
Carteret, and
Sewaren. At Elizabethport the CNJ also operated a car repair shop. Passenger service along the line ended in 1967 with the advent of the
Aldene Plan when the Bay Head trains (the line's only remaining commuter service) were moved to
Newark Penn Station. In 1976 Conrail took over ownership of the line and operation of the substantial freight business the line generated. The CNJ constructed a two-track bridge over lower
Newark Bay in 1864, and upgraded it to a dual pair of four-track lift bridges known collectively as the
CRRNJ Newark Bay Bridge in 1926. This bridge offered a route and service through
Bayonne and access to the
Communipaw Terminal with ferry service to New York City. After the Conrail takeover the bridge between Bayonne and Elizabethport was demolished in the 1980s, but some of the stone piers were left standing along the shores of Newark Bay. In 1872, the
Singer Manufacturing Company of New York opened a factory in Elizabethport along Trumbull Street next to the intersection of the CNJ mainline with the Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Branch. In 1873 Singer became a New Jersey corporation. The factory survived a major fire May 6–7, 1890. During
World War II much of the production capacity of the factory was shifted to war related work, with
M1911 pistols being one of several items produced at Elizabethport. The factory was shut down in the late 1960s. The brick factory built by Singer served as an
industrial park in 2009.
20th century In 1907,
John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the
Standard Oil company, acquired several hundred acres of the former Morse family estate between
Linden and
Elizabeth for what would become the
Bayway Refinery. Construction of the facility took place the following year and the first crude oil stills were fired up on January 2, 1909. The facility underwent a series of ownership changes and capacity expansions throughout the twentieth century. By 2002 it was owned by
ConocoPhillips. The
Shell Oil Company opened a terminal facility on a former Boynton farm property along Arbor Street in Sewaren in 1928. The terminal was transferred to the
Motiva Enterprises Shell subsidiary during the 20th century and expanded to a storage capacity with connections to the
Colonial pipeline and
barge docks on the Arthur Kill in addition to the rail connections. The facility now handles
gasoline,
diesel fuel,
jet fuel,
ethanol, and fuel mixtures. The current Chemical Coast connection to Staten Island is freight service only, although separate plans are also being studied to reactivate passenger service on the North Shore Branch on Staten Island. Some of these latter proposals would run passenger trains to
Cranford Junction, while others call for a western terminus at either the former
Arlington or
Port Ivory stations on Staten Island. ==Ethanol transshipment==