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Chemung as a Crossroads

 

Chemung has long been a crossroads in the region. The Chemung River was used for transportation and commerce by the earliest settlers. When the Junction Canal opened in 1856, it provided a link between Elmira’s Chemung Canal and Pennsylvania’s North Branch Canal. Shipments of coal were carried from Pennsylvania on the canal to the turning basin in Chemung where it was transferred to cars on the Erie Railroad. The railroad line with a station in Chemung was completed in 1849. Trains eventually made the canal obsolete and it was abandoned in 1872. Today, the Norfolk Southern Railroad still runs through Chemung.

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