History of anthracite coal mining in Pennsylvania railroad system made transporting the anthracite exponentially easier, and by the 1860s anthracite coal was regularly supplying urban centers like Philadelphia and New York City and was helping to fuel the American Industrial Revolution. Anthracite and bituminous coal were formed in the eastern and western regions of Pennsylvania respectively during the Pennsylvanian time in the Carboniferous Geological Period (“History of Anthracite Coal Mining”). The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region is in the Valley and Ridge Province of the Appalachian Mountains, with the coal located in the folded and faulted terrain of the Province. The anthracite fields are maintained in synclinal basins that
History of anthracite coal mining in Pennsylvania the building of a canal. By 1840, over 250,000 tons of anthracite mined from the region annually reached Philadelphia through White and Hazard’s Lehigh River system (Dublin, Licht, 12-3). A group of Germans wanted to seek the rights to the Schuylkill River. They received a charter in 1815 to incorporate the Schuylkill Navigation Company, which would have control over the Schuylkill River. After receiving investors the Schuylkill Navigation Company was able to finance a 108-mile long river and canal system that connected the Pottsville area to Philadelphia that opened in 1825. By the early 1840s, some 500,000 tons of anthracite