The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was an extremely impactful and important mining and transportation company in Pennsylvania that operated from 1818 (1820 & 1822) through 1964. It had two predecessors both incorporated and which began operations in mid-1818. It is widely cited in academia as a first case example of vertical integration in manufacturing in the U.S., combining source industries, transport, and goods output. In its first 50 years under the management of founders Erskine Hazard and Josiah White, the company spearheaded the Industrial Revolution in the United States greatly accelerating regional industrial development by taking on civil engineering challenges thought impossible and creating important transport and mining infrastructure. The founders, having gotten into the c