Before the railroad arrived, Monroe was an isolated farming community. The coming of the New York & Erie Railroad in 1841, later reorganized as the Erie Railroad, transformed life there by reducing travel to New York City from a day’s horse ride to only a few hours. Farmers could send fresh milk to the growing city without spoilage, industry expanded, and one of the first cheese factories in the United States was built in Monroe. Its easy access from New York City also made Monroe a popular destination for wealthy summer visitors, bringing money into the village and Orange County and leading to the construction of summer houses, cottages, and hotels. By the 1920s and 30s, however, automobile travel increasingly replaced passenger rail, and in the postwar era four-lane highways pushed the railroad toward bankruptcy as both vacationers and freight shifted to the roads. In 1960 the Erie Railroad entered a merger and became the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, but continued financial troubles led to additional mergers, and in 1983 the rails in Monroe were removed and the route later became the Orange County Heritage Trail.