Prior to the 1800s, travelers came to East Lyme by boat or horse and wagon, but the advent of the steam train replaced countless horses and connected people and towns like never before. Built between 1850 and 1852, the New Haven and New London Railroad connected with the railroad between Stonington and Boston. The passenger station once stood where Pennsylvania Avenue and Main Street intersected, and a nearby freight station provided convenient transport of goods into and out of East Lyme and the region. In 1872, the railroad became part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Many visitors came to the area to enjoy Niantic Bay and the beaches, and a second rail station was built at the end of Lake Avenue in Crescent Beach because of that beach community's popularity. Since 1976, the railroad through Niantic has been owned and operated by Amtrak. In 1999, the shoreline route between New Haven and Boston was electrified, completing an all-electric high-speed mainline between Washington D.C. and Boston, and the 460 mile Northeast Corridor is the busiest in the United States.