The Rutland and Washington Railroad was a railroad company based in Rutland, Vermont which was chartered in Vermont on November 13, 1847 and built between Rutland and Eagle Bridge in Rensselaer County, New York in 1851 and 1852. One of the company's founders was Merritt Clark, a Vermont politician, and another was , later involved with the Northern Pacific. In order to build in New York, the company, on June 24, 1850, took a perpetual rent-free lease of the franchise rights east of Salem of the Troy and Rutland Railroad, which had been chartered in that state on July 2, 1849. The remainder of the Troy and Rutland, from Salem west to Eagle Bridge, was completed in 1852 and leased to the Rutland and Washington effective July 2.