The planned route ran north from Whitehall to Port Henry, New York, on Lake Champlain, then turned inland to follow the Ausable River.

[2] An early champion of the company was Smith Mead Weed, member of the New York State Assembly for Clinton County, but he was unable to secure public funding for the railroad.

[4] The Addison Railroad, another Rutland-controlled company, bridged Lake Champlain near Ticonderoga in December 1871, connecting with the southern Whitehall and Plattsburgh line.

[7] The project of a line along the western coast of Lake Champlain was revived in March 1872 with the incorporation of the New York and Canada Railroad.

[9][10] The D&H accepted the engineering difficulties of building along the Lake Champlain coast and did not pursue the Whitehall and Plattsburgh's route along the Ausable River.