The West Shore and Ontario Terminal Company was a railway and port infrastructure company whose mission was to ensure the terminal connections between the West Shore railroad line and the ports of Lake Ontario. The West Shore Railroad, a competitor of the New York Central, ran along the western shore of the Hudson Valley before heading toward the Great Lakes. The authorized capital value of $15,000,000 attests to the significant scale of the project. The low number No. 119 suggests an early issue in the company's life. This certificate is a rare document of American railway scripophily linked to lakeshore infrastructure, a sector that played a crucial role in the economic development of New York State and the Great Lakes regions at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.