Lea Kahn

By: centraljersey.com
LAWRENCE – The trolley doesn’t stop here anymore.
But it did for about 40 years, and there are still plenty of remnants of it – which Township Historian Dennis Waters will show at the Lawrence Historical Society’s annual meeting Sunday.
Mr. Waters will discuss the trolley era in Lawrence Township at the 2 p.m. meeting at the Lawrence High School Commons on Princeton Pike, south of Darrah Lane.
"The trolleys led to the development of Lawrence as a suburb of Trenton," Mr. Waters said.
Between 1899 and 1940, two trolleys traversed Lawrence as they connected Trenton and Princeton, Mr. Waters said. The so-called "Old Line" ran up Brunswick Avenue and turned onto Main Street/Route 206. It continued to Fackler Road and onto Princeton Pike.
The Princeton Fast Line, also known as the Johnson Trolley Line, ran across private land in a more direct route, Mr. Waters said. It took about 40 minutes to connect Trenton and Princeton, while the other trolley line could take up to an hour to complete the trip.
But there is more to the story, and Mr. Waters plans to fill in the audience on the trials and tribulations of creating the two trolley lines. There were obstacles to overcome and powerful forces to overcome, he said.
"Who were the Johnsons? They were a very interesting pair of brothers. It’s really a fascinating story," he said, declining to offer any more details until Sunday.
Mr. Waters plans to point out relics and artifacts that have survived – such as the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, which is the bicycle and pedestrian path that uses the abandoned roadbed of the Johnson Trolley Line.
Mr. Waters said he chose the trolley lines as the topic for the annual meeting presentation because residents may have heard of the Johnson Trolley Line and they associate it with the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, but they don’t know much about its history.
That will change, however – at least, for those residents who turn out for the meeting.