The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part One: South Side R.R. of L.I.

Front matter

A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY

by

Vincent F. Seyfried

Chapter I: The South Side RR Becomes a Reality

WHEN the LIRR was first built and opened through to Greenport in 1844, its projectors thought of it as a direct route through to Boston, and somewhat a means of opening up to colonization the endless pine barrens through the center of the island. Historically, however, the oldest settlements on L.I. have been on the western end and all along the south shore. The original line of the LIRR, therefore, once it left Jamaica, passed through an uninhabited wilderness and served none of the old established and populous villages strung out along the south shore. Persons wishing to reach Brooklyn and Manhattan by rail had to make their way along the primitive roads inland, to one of the lonely LIRR stations in the center of the island, and as this traffic grew, various stage coach routes sprang up to meet the increasing demand for public transportation. Several lines like the Deer Park-Babylon stage and the Hempstead-Freeport stage ran on regular schedules and carried many passengers.

In the 1850's transportation on the south side was further improved when the Plank Road companies took over the old wagon tracks and converted them into planked toll roads. The Merrick & Jamaica Plank Rd. Co. improved the Merrick Road between Jamaica and Merrick, while the South Oyster Bay Tpk. Co. improved the road from Hempstead to Merrick and on to Babylon (the present Babylon Turnpike and the Merrick Road). By 1860 there was a regular stage coach line between Amityville and Fulton Ferry which made two round trips a week, each round trip occupying three days, the middle day being allowed to rest the horses and to let the passengers transact their business. The stage was drawn by three horses and a relay was kept at Hempstead. It carried the mails for all the villages and the freights.

As the country entered the Civil War era, it became apparent that the stage coach could no longer meet the needs of the growing island. In 1860, therefore, a group of Long Island and Manhattan capitalists resolved to build a railroad from the East River to Patchogue all along the south shore of the island. The directors and president of the LIRR had been approached on several occasions to build such a road, or at least extend branches to the big villages, but they had always refused. It became clear that if a south side road was to be built at all, it would have to be built by independent capital.

Charles Fox of Baldwin was the leading spirit behind the organization of the new road. A wealthy man owning much real estate in Manhattan, a senior partner in the big clothing house of F. B. Baldwin and an alderman in New York, Fox induced a group of other wealthy men to invest in the new project. The Civil War forced the scheme into abeyance until 1865 because of the instability of the money market and the impossibility of obtaining iron. With the coming of peace in the spring of 1865, Fox and his men plunged energetically into the organization and building of their South Side Railroad of L.I. By summer the stocks and bonds of the new road had been printed and were placed on the market. As fast as the securities were sold, the road was to be built and it was hoped that ground would be broken in October.

In the fine Fall weather of 1865 the directors of the road personally visited all the men of means of their acquaintance along the south side towns. Next to Charles Fox, one of the road's most vigorous supporters was Willett Charlick, brother of Oliver Charlick, president of the Long Island R.R., and the deadliest enemy of the whole South Side RR scheme. Willett Charlick lived in Freeport and canvassed that area along with director Samuel DeMott; James Tuttle covered the Rockville Centre area and Martin Willets did the same for Babylon.

Stock and bond sales were slow in coming in. Some persons insisted the road would not pay, while others doubted that it would be built at all. It was hoped to raise by public subscription $250,000 in all. As the year 1865 drew to a close, all but about $40,000 had been paid in.

In January 1866 the road was formally incorporated and it was planned to begin construction as soon as the frost was out of the ground. Naturally enough, Charles Fox was elected president of the new organization; the treasurer was William J. Rushmore, president of the Atlantic National Bank in Brooklyn and a resident of Hempstead, and Alexander McCue, Corporation Counsel of Brooklyn, became treasurer. The vice-president was A. J. Bergen, member of the Assembly for Suffolk.

In March 1866 Oliver Charlick's friend, the "Long Island Star," ridiculed the new road because the articles of association and the maps had not yet been filed, but work went on just the same. Sales of stock continued encouraging and best of all, many landholders were donating the right of way.

In April 1866 the road was advertised for contract. Sealed proposals were receivable at the company's office at 68 Wall St., New York, for grading, bridging, masonry, furnishing and laying of ties and rails for 34 miles of line from Jamaica to Islip. Plans and specifications were available as of May 1. Samuel McElroy was named Chief Engineer. Bids were to be closed on May 12.

The successful bidders were Shanahan, Meyers & Co. and the contract set April 1, 1867 as the completion date. The contractors started work on May 22 and immediately subcontracted the road into six sections, as follows:

Jamaica to Springfield, 4 miles Springfield to Rockville Centre, 5½ miles Rockville Centre to Freeport, 4 miles Freeport to Hicksville Rd., Massapequa, 6 miles Massapequa to Islip, 15 miles

Vandewater Smith, himself a director of the road and a contractor, was to furnish a third of the ties; Willett Charlick furnished a second third, and Martin Willets of Islip the remainder. Ties had to be 8 feet long, 4½ to 5 inches thick, and 6 inches wide dressed; any wood at all was acceptable. The railroad itself was to furnish the rolling stock.

On Monday, May 28, 1866 the dirt began to fly. A small work force began labor in Jamaica, while a second force was sent to work at Freeport and began grading westward.

In September 1866 at a meeting of the directors it was voted to extend the road from the present contracted terminus at Islip elevenmiles eastward to Patchogue. This extension would not be laid, however, till 1867 or 1868; there was also talk of running a steamer from Patchogue to touch all the Great South Bay villages to the east.

During September 1866 additional gangs of workmen were set to work at the Hicksville Road (present Route 107) between the present stations of Seaford and Massapequa and work was pushed two miles to the east and west. Another gang was engaged near Amityville, grading through the swamp north of Ireland's Mill Pond (still existing) and a third graded through the swamp near Carman's Mill Pond (Massapequa Lake).

By the onset of winter weather in late November 1866, the grading of the road bed was largely finished between Jamaica and Islip. It was planned to lay ties and rails in the coming spring. The spectacle of actual physical work on the new railroad spurred the sale of the road's remaining securities, and in December Mr. Willett Charlick made the rounds of the bondholders for the first installment of 33⅓%.

The enforced rest for the winter months was put to good use by the officials of the road in negotiating for a western outlet for the railroad. At first the directors approached the Brooklyn Central & Jamaica RR operating the line between Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, and Jamaica, but Oliver Charlick, the astute and Machiavellian president of the Long Island RR, managed to secure an indirect lease on the line for himself in November 1866, and so shut out the South Side R.R. from downtown Brooklyn. This left the road with the alternative of building its own line westward from Jamaica to a terminal in Long Island City or to Williamsburgh. After much deliberation it was decided to do both if possible. Overtures were made to the Brooklyn authorities to enter the Bushwick area via Metropolitan Aye., and to the New York & Flushing RR to lease that portion of their track along Newtown Creek between Maspeth and Long Island City. Since either terminus involved building at least as far west as Maspeth, another contract was let to grade a route through Richmond Hill, Glendale and Fresh Ponds, to be completed by July 1. Work began April 8, 1867. During May Messrs. Shanahan & Shields, the contractors, were busy grading between Maspeth and Glendale.

Meanwhile the more important task of working on the main line was resumed in April. Gangs of men with ties and rails were dispatched to South Jamaica and Springfield. Another gang began Work on the eastern end of the road in May. In June enough rail had been laid at the Jamaica end to run an engine and work cars. Old Beaver Pond between Beaver Street and Liberty Avenue in Jamaica presented something of an obstacle to the railroad because of the swampy marshland on its edges; to overcome this the track was laid on driven piles, and the construction cars dumped load after load of dirt into the pond to make a sound roadbed and provide room for a station area and sidings. Orders were placed for three locomotives and the first passenger cars.

Over toward Newtown Creek in Maspeth work was also progressing. The railroad successfully negotiated the purchase of thirty-five acres of meadow land belonging to Calvary Cemetery between Jack's and Dutch Kills creeks with a valuable frontage along Newtown Creek on which to establish a freight and manure depot.

In Fresh Ponds the South Side laborers staged a local riot on pay day June 18, by getting drunk, shouting, insulting passers-by, and eventually forcing their way into houses where they belabored the owners and stole their valuables.

During July 1867 the work of track laying progressed at the average rate of half a mile per day; track laying was going on simultaneously from Fresh Ponds to Jamaica and from Jamaica to about Valley Stream. Another track laying gang was moving west from Babylon. By the third week of August the rails reached Pearsall's (Lynbrook) and then a halt developed because of some difficulty between the officers of the road and Contractor Shanahan.

The work was further handicapped at this moment because of a severe injury to President Fox. He had attempted to board a Long Island train hurriedly at Mineola on the morning of August 5, 1867, moments before it had come to a final stop. In so doing, his foot slipped and he fell between the car and the station platform, the motion of the cars rolling him over and over in a space of seven or eight inches, causing severe internal injuries and breaking an arm. Doctors were summoned immediately who saved his life. A long period of recuperation became necessary and the active management of the road devolved upon one of the directors, Mr. A. J. Bergen of Islip.

During the first week of September the railhead reached Rockville Centre. The engine Charles Fox headed the construction work at this time and the south siders felt elated at the spectacle of this new iron horse puffing along, backing and returning; thirty to forty men were at work moving the railhead eastward.

By September 10 two engines were running construction trains, and two new passenger cars had been delivered at Hunter's Point; ten miles of track remained to be laid. At a meeting of the directors Mr. Ezra W. Conklin received the post of Chief Engineer replacing Samuel McElroy. On Monday September 23 the completed railhead reached the village of Freeport and the citizens went out of their way to welcome the construction train. All the residences were lighted up and a large number of people gathered at the railroad crossing at Main Street. Here sat the Charles Fox steaming away under an imposing arch bearing the inscription "Welcome to the Charles Fox," and on either side of the arch was suspended the Stars and Stripes. At the rear were the flat cars which served as platforms for the speakers and the brass band. Transparencies hung here and there adding a light and gay touch to the street. Decorations of evergreens and floral designs hung from poles all about and fireworks lit up the evening sky. Suitable short speeches were made and cheered to the echo, after which refreshments were served.

Five miles of rails remained to be laid. On October 11, 1867 the rails reached Babylon, and on the following day the Charles Fox with a passenger car attached containing the directors, passed over the road and were the recipeints of numerous ovations at the different stations along the route. A brass band turned up at the Mineola Hotel where President Fox lay, recovering from his injuries, and serenaded him and he responded by inviting them all in for supper.

On Monday, October 28, 1867 the great day arrived, and trains began running regularly for the first time. The first trains enjoyed heavy patronage and met enthusiastic receptions all along the line. The very first schedule provided for two trains a day each way, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The running time was one hour and fifteen minutes and the stations and fares were as follows:

Jamaica to

Springfield | 15¢ | | Merrick | 45¢

Pearsall's | 25¢ | Ridgewood (Wantagh) | 55¢

Rockville Centre | 30¢ | South Oyster Bay (Massapequa) | 60¢

Baldwinsville | 35¢ | Amityville | 65¢

Freeport | 40¢ | Babylon | 85¢

The opening of the new road was acclaimed in all the Long Island newspapers and many persons turned out to see the new first-class locomotives and elegant passenger cars. A month before (September) the directors had succeeded in inducing Robert White, superintendent of the LIRR, to take over the same post on the South Side R.R. He was one of the most experienced railroad men available and brought to the road the energetic and competent management it needed.

On November 14, 1867 the South Side R.R. staged a formal grand opening of the completed road between Jamaica and Babylon. A five-car train was drawn up at the station and filled with the mayor, the whole Common Council, and prominent people of Brooklyn, plus the officers and directors of the South Side R.R. Other cars contained the prominent officials of Jamaica and Queens County, some Assemblymen from Albany and gentlemen of the press. The weather providentially turned out sunny and clear. After an hour's ride the train reached Babylon and the party was escorted to the American Hotel where "an elegant and sumptuous repast" was served. Speeches were made by the more prominent guests and the health of the absent President Fox was toasted. Later the guests sauntered about the streets of Babylon and then "took the cars" for Brooklyn.

Among the lyrical predictions of great things to come from the opening up of rich farmlands and thriving villages, many interesting facts emerged. The road cost $20,000 a mile including equipment; the company's capital was $1,250,000, of which $700,000 had already been expended. Popular enthusiasm along the line had resulted in the donation of several depot buildings. At Ridgewood (Wantagh) the depot had gone up by private subscription and the same thing was being done at Babylon. In addition much of the right of way had been donated outright by the farmers.

Chapter II: The South Side Rail Road Reaches the East River

WHILE the company was completing its main line Babylon, important events were happening on the west end of the line during the spring and summer of 1867. When the railhead approached the headwaters of Newtown Creek, it became necessary to make a decision: should the road seek its river-front terminal by going along the north bank of the creek into Long Island City, or should it follow the south bank into the Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn? Since the Long Island RR and the Flushing RR already had their termini in Long Island City, the company favored Brooklyn for its depot.

As early as the fall of 1866 long before the road turned a shovelful of earth, some of its promoters induced some of the prominent residents of Williamsburgh to support them in a petition addressed to the Common Council of Brooklyn to enter the city along the line of Metropolitan Avenue and North Third Street down to the ferry, and with a main depot at Union Avenue. The residents of the then very new village of Greenpoint signified that they were more than willing to let the railroad come through their area, should Brooklyn prove inhospitable.

Williamsburgh at the end of the Civil War had grown into a large city; between 1850 and 1855 it had been an independent city and had then merged into Brooklyn as the Eastern District. The Common Council was understandably hesitant about permitting a steam railroad to lay its tracks through a densely settled area where there was menace to life and limb. The Council wisely decided to open the question to public discussion and advertised public hearings in the press. The editors of the local papers seized upon the topic as one of paramount importance to the community, and threw open their columns to the widest public discussion.

Thanks to the long series of articles contributed by every shade of opinion, we can appreciate today the feelings pro and con about steam in the streets. In the Williamsburgh of the 1860's Bushwick Avenue, a north-south street, marked the limit of settlement. East of Bushwick Avenue stretched a very large area of swamp and meadowland forming the headwaters of Newtown Creek. No houses dotted this primeval greensward. Farmers pastured their cows in its fields and cut hay for winter fodder. Two roads only cut through the meadows: Maspeth Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue.

On the edge of the meadows and near the junction of the above avenues stood the old-time glue factory of Peter Cooper, one of the merchant princes of his day and the founderof Cooper Union. He owned nearly all the land in the area, while the Thursby family of ropewalk fame and the Kalbfleisch family (mayor of Brooklyn) owned the rest. The Coopers vigorously opposed the incursion of the South Side RR and led the opposition against the road. Cooper alleged that 100% of the people were opposed to the railroad and in rebuttal angry letters appeared in the Times attacking Cooper for self-interest and inaccuracy. The controversy raged unabated during May, June and July 1867 and finally came to a head in November and December.

Briefly, opponents of the South Side RR made these telling points against a line on Metropolitan Avenue to the ferry:

1. Travelers from Long Island would simply pass through Williamsburgh and not spend any money in the District.

2. The District contained twelve churches and three large public schools, the pupils of whom were threatened with maiming and death at the hands of the railroad.

3. Steam cars would inevitably depress the value of building lots just coming onto the market.

4. Steam would blight the residential area between the ferry and Bushwick Avenue, as had happened on Park Avenue and Eleventh Avenue in New York.

5. The speed of steam cars will be greater than that of horse cars and so be a greater menace to pedestrians.

6. A depot on the East River would crowd existing factories, and the trans-shipment of manure would make the area intolerable to residents.

7. Metropolitan Avenue was narrow, twenty-four feet in some places and sixty feet at most anywhere, leaving no room for vehicular traffic.

8. Metropolitan Avenue varied widely in grade; a steep rise from the ferry to Bedford Avenue, a deep dip near Union Avenue, etc. The grade varied eight feet over all and because nineteen streets intersected it, cutting it down to a level for steam engines would be unthinkable.

Proponents of the South Side Rail Road urged these points in answer:

1. Peter Cooper's opposition stems from his unwillingness to move his pestilential glue factory.

2. A large produce market would be set up at the South Side terminus as an outlet for the Long Island farmers, providing fresh produce for all and employment for many.

3. The railroad will not depress, but will rather increase the value of property along the street.

4. Streets with railroads hum with life but wither away with the driving out of steam traffic; see what Atlantic Avenue was before 1861 and what it is now.

5. Opposition to the South Side RR is being secretly abetted by President Oliver Charlick of the LIRR who fears competition, and the owners of the Long Island City ferries who fear loss of patronage.

6. Quick, cheap transit to the suburbs is one of Brooklyn's crying needs.

7. Access to Long Island summer resorts and beaches will be a boon to every Brooklyn family.

8. Progress cannot be stopped by a Japanese policy of a closed door.

9. The distance the railroad would go through crowded city streets is only a half mile to a Union Avenue depot or a mile to the ferry.

As the argument raged in the hearings and in the press, the local newspaper came out strongly in favor of the South Side road. The Brooklyn Times and the Brooklyn Union championed the railroad, and the Eagle favored the idea. There were not wanting voices of compromise. Some suggested running the road to the Wallabout Basin (now the Navy Yard) along the lowlands marking the division between old Brooklyn and Williamsburgh, approximately along the line of Flushing Avenue, then sparsely settled. Another school of thinking viewed favorably a private right-of-way running midway between Maspeth and Metropolitan Avenues as far as Bushwick Avenue. Still others liked the idea of a line along Newtown Creek down to the East River by-passing Williamsburgh altogether.

In the first week of July 1867 the hot dispute came to a vote in the Common Council and the railroad was refused entry into Brooklyn along the line of Metropolitan Avenue with steam cars. In September the South Side RR again petitioned the Common Council to enter Brooklyn, this time along the line of Dickinson Avenue, then north up Vandervoort Avenue to Orient, and west along Orient Avenue to the jnuction of Metropolitan and Bushwick Avenues. This route was poor, involving two sharp turns, yet opposition again developed despite the absence of houses along the route.

As November 1867 wore on with no solution in sight, the Brooklyn Times editorially suggested that the South Side might achieve a river terminus cheaply and easily by going along the line of Bushwick Creek (North Thirteenth Street and through McCarren Park), the very route later to be chosen for the Manhattan Beach road, but intimated that the railroad should be satisfied with a depot on Bushwick Avenue.

The South Side RR made one last try before accepting the advice of the Times. On November 28, 1867 the road petitioned the Common Conucil to enter Brooklyn along the line of Montrose Avenue and to build a depot at Union Avenue. The advantages were that Montrose Avenue was eighty feet wide in Williamsburgh and that east of Bushwick Avenue, it existed only on paper, traversing a swamp and meadow with not a single house. From Bushwick to Union Avenue was densely populated, to be sure, but this stretch was only five blocks long.

No one at all objected to the meadowland route to the east, but for the five block stretch to Union Avenue there was strong opposition because of the dense population all about; all the old arguments against steam were trotted out and restated. Some one proposed a tunnel but the railroad engineers pointed out that the ground level was only seven to ten feet above high water and that the railroad was unable to expend the estimated cost of almost a million dollars.

As the year 1867 came to a close with the matter still deadlocked, the railroad accepted what had long been apparent: a terminus on the edge of the city (Bushwick Avenue) and the use of horses to pull the cars the rest of the distance to the ferry. As soon as the railroad made known its willingness to accept this compromise, the Common Council on December 16 gratefully ended the long dispute by granting a depot on Bushwick Avenue at Montrose Avenue and a single-track horse-operated road to the ferry at the foot of South Seventh Street.

When it became evident to the South Side RR that an outlet to the East River was certain, negotiations were begun to acquire a site on the waterfront for a depot. The company first negotiated for the Tuttle Coal Yard at Wythe and South Seventh but the price of $33,000 for 3 lots struck the directors as too high. The ferry stand at the foot of South Eighth Street, and a lot at South Eighth and Kent either cost too much or else provided insufficient space. After much searching about, the railroad finally managed to buy a plot of ground directly on the water between Broadway (old South Seventh Street) and South Eighth Street. The site had formerly been a coal yard and the railroad simply took over the existing office building as a freight depot. The property consisted of eight city lots, with a frontage on Kent Avenue of sixty-eight feet and a depth of 156 feet. Since the property directly adjoined the Broadway Ferry, it provided ideal accommodations for passengers.

With the depot problem solved at last, the South Side RR lost no time in building its track from Jamaica to the Broadway Ferry. As of December 1867 the track was completed from Jamaica to 118th Street., Richmond Hill, and the iron and ties were distributed along the line as far as Fresh Pond Road only three miles from the South Seventh Street ferry. The hard frosts and winter weather made track laying unsuitable, so the company used to good advantage the months of February and March in securing a route between Bushwick terminus and South Seventh Street ferry. On February 20, 1868 a petition was presented by the owners of property on Broadway to permit the railroad to run horse cars on Broadway. On March 2 the Common Council granted this request, giving the South Side a line along Montrose Avenue from Bushwick Avenue to Union Avenue, down Union Avenue a block to Broadway, and thence along Broadway to the ferry. The only conditions set were that the company should pave the rails with stone, operate only steam coaches, not park cars in the public street, and transport no manure.

While this arrangement seemed to please everybody at first sight, there was one hidden flaw. The Broadway R.R. Co., a street car company, was already operating a line of horse cars along Montrose Avenue to Bushwick Avenue. Rather than lay a second track beside that of the Broadway Company, or enter upon long and involved negotiations with them, President Fox of the South Side petitioned the Common Council to substitute Boerum Street instead, two blocks to the south. This time, miraculously, the permission was forthcoming immediately without long and dreary litigation.

With the entire route to Brooklyn cleared at last, the contractors building the road pushed their work. Just at this juncture, President Oliver Charlick of the LIRR shrewdly introduced another obstacle. As lessee of the Brooklyn Central & Jamaica RR since 1866, Charlick secured an injunction from the courts to prevent the South Side RR from crossing his road at Dunton west of Jamaica. It was but a delaying maneuver at best and within a month's time, the injunction was dissolved and construction continued onward.

By February 15, 1868 the gang had completed the track to Fresh Ponds and it was debated whether to open service immediately or wait to reach Brooklyn. On the nineteenth, as a party of workmen were excavating in a cut west of Fresh Pond Road, the bank suddenly caved in burying three men; thanks to prompt rescue work, all three were dug out uninjured. During April another gang was hard at work driving piles along the route through the meadows adjoining Newtown Creek. All during the fair spring weather the work was being pushed night and day and it was announced the road would enter Brooklyn by June 25. The heavy cutting involved in passing the ridge of hills near the Lutheran Cemetery proved the biggest obstacle.

On Saturday, July 18, 1868 the great day arrived after months of preparation; the first train passed over the South Side RR into Bushwick station, carrying 600 passengers. As yet there was no real depot. The railroad had taken over a farmhouse of Revolutionary vintage on the property, once the homestead of the Schenck family, and used it as a temporary waiting room and ticket office. The railroad had to rely on the Bushwick Avenue and Montrose Avenue horse cars to transport its passengers to the ferry, and there was lively competition for this privilege between the Brooklyn City and Broadway Railroads.

The opening of the South Side line to Brooklyn was welcomed as one of the greatest events in the history of Williamsburgh. The press saw it as a final rectification of the blunder of driving steam service from Atlantic Avenue seven years before. It was now possible to reach Jamaica in twenty minutes less time, and more important, brought the whole of the south side of Long Island into easy reach of Brooklyn. The new equipment and high standard of roadbed was favorably contrasted with the older Long Island RR, and looking far into the future, the press envisioned the many new villages and handsome residences that would grow up.