http://tags.library.upenn.edu/tag/NJ PennTags Feed http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/32127 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/32127 <p>September 7, 2008<br />Battlefield Latest Holdup for Rail Line<br />By COLEEN DEE BERRY</p> <p>MANALAPAN</p> <p>WHEN prosperous central New Jersey farmers built the Freehold-Jamesburg Agricultural Railroad in the early 1850s, little did they suspect they would be laying the ground for a controversy a century and a half later.</p> <p>The rail line the farmers created to transport crops ran straight through the heart of one of the largest American Revolution battlefields. On June 28, 1778, George Washington's Continental Army fought the British to what many historians consider a draw in what later became known as the Battle of Monmouth.</p> <p>When the farmers built their railroad about 75 years later smack through the site of the old battlefield, no one objected.</p> <p>"In the 1850s the farmers were most concerned about getting their crops to New York City, not with preserving a battlefield," said James T. Raleigh, president of the Friends of Monmouth Battlefield.</p> <p>Now, that same rail line seems to be an ideal location for a new commuter rail plan to serve parts of central New Jersey, an idea that officials from Monmouth and Ocean Counties have been promoting. The problem is, the old battlefield was granted National Landmark status in 1966, and New Jersey and National Park Service officials object to the line running through the historic site.</p> <p>...</p> <p>The battlefield objection is the latest in a long line of roadblocks to the Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex rail line, often called the MOM line. Proponents contend that the passenger line is needed to ease congestion in the Route 9 corridor.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/25406 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/25406 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/25405 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/25405 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/25404 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/25404 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/24407 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/url/24407