The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was a major anthracite mining and transporting firm in eastern Pennsylvania between 1822 and 1954. The company was incorporated on February 13, 1822, as a consolidation of two unincorporated companies, the Lehigh Coal Company and the Lehigh Navigation Company, both founded in 1818. The founders, Josiah White (1781-1850) and Erskine Hazard (1789-1865) had been wire manufacturers in Philadelphia and, as such, were among the earliest regular users of anthracite coal.

Between 1818 and 1824, the company and its predecessors opened coal mines, established the town of Mauch Chunk as a transshipment point, and constructed descending navigation on the Lehigh River from Mauch Chunk to Easton, utilizing a form of hydrostatically operated flash gates. White invented flash gates, commonly known as "bear traps." The company built an eight-mile gravity railroad from its mines to Mauch Chunk in 1827, and the descending navigation was replaced by a full canal and slackwater navigation between 1826 and 1829. The canal was extended northward to White Haven in 1838, using dams and locks of unusual height. Portage railroad construction occurred from 1840 to 1843 between White Haven and Wilkes Barre, but it never carried loaded canal boats as originally planned.

The original Mauch Chunk railroad was rebuilt in 1846-1850 and converted into a system of loops worked only by stationary engines and gravity. Cars would be hoisted up one inclined plane and then coast by gravity to the foot of the next plane, where the process was repeated. This system was replaced by a conventional railroad in 1873, but a portion of it continued to be operated as a scenic railroad for tourists until the 1930s.

A flood destroyed the portion of the canal between Mauch Chunk and White Haven in 1862. The Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad was extended from White Haven to Easton to replace the canal between 1862 and 1868. The railroad was leased to the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey in 1871, giving direct connections with New York. The company had purchased the Delaware Division Canal running from Easton to Bristol in 1866.

The Lehigh and Delaware Division Canals were abandoned for through-service in 1931, although small sections of the Lehigh Canal continued to operate until 1942. The company discontinued coal mining in 1954 and sold its coal reserves in 1966. Its last interest in the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad was sold to Conrail in 1978, and the company was finally liquidated in 1985.