The Eastern Railroad Company was establish on April 14, 1836, when a charter was granted for the purpose of building a railroad line from Boston to Newburyport, Massachusetts, that would connect with proposed lines in New Hampshire and Maine (Kennedy 96). The leadership of the company included George Peabody (1795-1869) as president until 1842, Benjamin T. Reed (1801-1874)as treasurer, and eleven board members who were selected to represent the towns along the route. Colonial James S. Fessenden was the chief engineer (97).

Constructing the railroad involved a fair amount of road and masonry work. The largest part was building the Salem tunnel, which was "one of the largest pieces of granite work undertaken in New England up to that time, and was built under contract by E. Gilmore and Company" (98). In June 1840, the first train arrived in Newburyport, where it connected with the New Hampshire line.

In August 1846, the Company leased the Essex Branch Railroad for five years, and in 1865, it bought the branch outright (Wikipedia). In 1883, the Company was leased by its competitor, Boston &amp Maine, for 54 years; they later bought it out in 1890, and the Eastern Railroad Company was dissolved. Much of the railroad's main line in Massachusetts is used by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Newburyport/Rockport commuter rail line, while some unused parts of its right-of-way have been converted to rail trails (Wikipedia).