The charter granted to the company, December 5, 1833, authorized it to construct a railroad from Reading to Philadelphia. At Reading it was proposed to connect with the Little Schuylkill Navigation and Railroad, which had been incorporated in 1827, to build a railroad from Tamaqua to Reading. By a latter statute the company was authorized to extend its road from Reading to Port Clinton, where connection was made with the Little Schuylkill and Navigation and Railroad. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was planned primarily to transport anthracite from the Schuylkill region to Philadelphia and intermediate points, especially where a number of blast furnaces were then operating. Anthracite was known to exist in the Schuylkill Valley as early as 1800, since which time the iron industry had become one of much importance, the first furnace being established on Manatawney Creek, near Pottstown, in 1716. Wood and charcoal were first used in smelting the ore, but the increasing scarcity of these fuels led to experiments, which, in 1808, proved that anthracite could be used advantageously as furnace fuel. Anthracite was first transported by the Schuylkill Canal from the vicinity of Pottsville to Philadelphia, and the furnaces in the Schuylkill Valley. The growing need for this new fuel in domestic and furnace use and the limitations of canal transportation led to the era of railroad construction between the anthracite regions and tidewater ports. On December 5, 1839, the railroad was opened to traffic from Reading to Philadelphia, and on January 1, 1842, the first locomotive and train passed over the entire line between Mount Carbon in Schuylkill County, and Philadelphia. On May 17, 1842, the Richmond Branch, from the Falls of the Schuylkill to the terminal at Port Richmond, on the Delaware, was opened, from which time the Reading has been an important railroad. In 1853 the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company began the construction of the Lebanon Valley Railroad, extending from Reading to Harrisburg. The line was completed in 1858, and merged into the Reading Railroad. May 8, 1871, the parent company bought the Northern Liberties and Penn Township Railroad, in Philadelphia, control of which had been obtained in 1857. In the period between 1859 and 1870, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company commenced the systematic extension which has resulted in the development of the present Reading System. In that period the company acquired through purchase or lease twenty-six railroads. Between 1870 and 1880, thirteen more were acquired; in the next decade nine were added; from 1890 to 1900 eight were acquired and since 1900, four more were added, until, at the present time the Reading Company, with its affiliated lines operates 1619.15 miles of railroad, exclusive of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and 3.63 miles of road leased jointly by the Reading Company and the Central Railroad of New Jersey.