Middlesex Greenway
Metuchen, Middlesex County, NJ

Directions:

Take I- 80 to US 287; take exit 2A to Route 27 north; drive 0.5 of a mile to Lake Avenue; turn left onto Memorial Parkway for Memorial Park. 

History:

1870s  -- Lehigh Valley Railroad (LV) built to bring coal from eastern Pennsylvania mines to Jersey City and New York City.  They had a large rail yard in South Plainfield.  From here coal was sent east on a secondary line through Metuchen and Edison to the Perth Amboy coal docks.

1962  --  the Pennsylvania Railroad takes over the coal dependent LV line. 

1976  -- creation of Conrail.

1986  -- Conrail abandons the Metuchen line. 

1993 --  Metuchen line abandoned.

2002 (December)  --  transfer of the railroad property to Middlesex County for its use as parkland.
 

Trail:

The 3.8 mile long rail-trail goes southwest from Middlesex Avenue in Metuchen  through Edison to Crows Mill Road in the village of Fords.

The trail will be a link in the East Coast Greenway running from Maine to Florida.

Source: Della Penna 1999: chapter 13.
http://www.edisongreenways.org/greenway.html