One year after a pier was built to access Raritan Bay in Port Monmouth, New Jersey, Middletown Plank Road Company built a timber plank road which wound through town – the “Farmer’s Railway.” A farmer’s “railway” arrived in Port Monmouth in 1854.
Port Monmouth’s Farmer’s Railway was constructed using wooden planks, laid side-by-side across beams. Those beams were called stringers. Stringers stabilized planks with their weight.
Prior to construction of the Farmer’s Highway, local farmers around Port Monmouth labored through the process of being forced to move produce over rugged terrain. Muddy, uneven paths, rocky terrain…it was rough.
A timber plank road made it easier for farmers to get to Port Monmouth’s pier – where products could be transported by ship – and the local farmer’s market in Middletown.
Those wooden wagons making their way across this new ”railway” in Port Monmouth were stocked with rye, Indian corn, oats, peas, beans, Irish potatoes, barley or buckwheat.
