 The arduous route required the construction of a tunnel and three inclined planes, which included the famed Ashley Planes.With the completion of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, the canal industry, which had existed for no more than one generation, faced a rapid extinction.The Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad moved Wyoming Valley anthracite from its various coal fields to White Haven; over the Appalachian Mountains that had posed such a challenge to settlers for 150 years.