thumb|The Lackawanna Valley, an 1855 portrait by George Inness depicting 19th century Scranton and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's roundhouse thumb|upright=1|An 1890 panoramic map of Scranton thumb|Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad yards in Scranton, Though anthracite coal was being mined in Carbondale to the north and Wilkes-Barre to the south, the industries that precipitated the city's early rapid growth were iron and steel. In the 1840s, brothers Selden T. and George W. Scranton, who had worked at Oxford Furnace in Oxford, New Jersey, founded what became Lackawanna Iron & Coal, later developing as the Lackawanna Steel Company. It initially started producing iron nails, but that venture failed due to low-quality iron. The Erie Railroad's construction in New York State was delayed by its having to acquire iron rails as imports from England. The Scrantons' firm decided to switch its focus to producing T-rails for the Erie; the company soon became a major producer of rails for the rapidly expanding railroads.
thumb|The Lackawanna Valley, an 1855 portrait by George Inness depicting 19th century Scranton and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's roundhouse thumb|upright=1|An 1890 panoramic map of Scranton thumb|Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad yards in Scranton, Though anthracite coal was being mined in Carbondale to the north and Wilkes-Barre to the south, the industries that precipitated the city's early rapid growth were iron and steel. In the 1840s, brothers Selden T. and George W. Scranton, who had worked at Oxford Furnace in Oxford, New Jersey, founded what became Lackawanna Iron & Coal, later developing as the Lackawanna Steel Company. It initially started producing iron nails, but that venture failed due to low-quality iron. The Erie Railroad's construction in New York State was delayed by its having to acquire iron rails as imports from England. The Scrantons' firm decided to switch its focus to producing T-rails for the Erie; the company soon became a major producer of rails for the rapidly expanding railroads