Railroads came early to the Lehigh Valley because anthracite coal was needed in enormous amounts to smelt iron productively in the modern furnaces from the 1840s onward, while local ore and limestone came from mines and quarries throughout the area. Coal was first carried in canal boats, but railways moved greater quantities year-round and more reliably, and the valley's first railroads were anthracite railways that also carried passengers and other freight. One projected line, the Allentown Railroad, sponsored by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad to carry Schuylkill County anthracite eastward, was graded and had some bridge piers and abutments built before work stopped after the Panic of 1857; intended to compete with the East Pennsylvania Railroad, completed in 1859, it was never finished, and in 1869 the Philadelphia and Reading instead leased the East Pennsylvania for 999 years. Iron furnaces were built in Topton, Alburtis, Macungie, and Emmaus along the East Pennsylvania branch, and its tracks remain an important railroad corridor now operated by Norfolk Southern. The Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad was built to bring raw materials to furnaces in Lehigh County, and its section connecting to the East Pennsylvania line in Alburtis was completed in 1864; passenger trains ran between Alburtis and Catasauqua until as late as 1935. Trolley service also became important: the Allentown and Reading Traction Company, known as the Dorney Park Line, began service in 1899 from Center Square in Allentown to Dorney Park and onward through Wescosville, East Texas, and Trexlertown into Berks County, drew heavy patronage, especially between Allentown and Dorney Park, purchased the amusement park in 1901, and was replaced by buses in 1936. The Lehigh Valley Transit Company, the largest trolley system in the valley, extended service in 1899 from Emmaus through East Macungie into the borough of Macungie to the Continental Hotel near the railroad station; that line closed in 1929, and the company ended all service in 1953.