Pequest Fill

[1][2][3] Thought to have been the brainchild of DL&W president William Truesdale, the Pequest Fill was one of several remarkable features of the Cut-Off, a 28.6-mile (46-km) project that aimed to reduce the length, grades, and curvature of the railroad's main line over the hilly terrain between Port Morris, New Jersey, and the Delaware Water Gap.

[4][2] Planning for the route continued through 1906; the final survey map for the line was completed on September 1, allowing the railroad to proceed with eminent domain and hire contractors.

Whether by design or happenstance, the responsibility for building the Pequest Fill was divided roughly in half between David W. Flickwir to the east and Walter H. Gahagan to the west.

[5] The Fill was touted as the highest railroad embankment in the world, having an average height of 105 feet as measured from the level of the Pequest River at its crossing.

[3][10][11] Its volume was also a new record, far surpassing the 4 million-plus cubic feet used by the Union Pacific railroad in its 1908 Lane's Cut-off west of Omaha, Nebraska.

In 2011, NJ Transit received approval to re-lay track between Port Morris Junction and Andover; as of 2023, the line is slated to open for rail service in 2026 or 2027.

Construction of the Pequest Fill near Tranquility, New Jersey , nears completion in summer 1911. In this eastward view, the edge of the borrow pit is visible to the right. Andover Station will be built at the far end of the Fill, where the right-of-way begins to curve to the right, about three miles away.
The westbound Lackawanna Limited comes off the Fill in 1912, about one mile east of the Greendell station, whose siding is visible at bottom right. The photo became the basis for a Phoebe Snow poster advertising the trimming of 11 miles from the ride to Buffalo, New York.
This 1910 photo shows how much of the fill was created: by dumping small skip cars of dirt from a suspended railway.
US Route 206 passes under the Fill in Andover . In this northward view, the new Andover Station will stand about a half-mile to the right.