The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part Two: The Flushing, North Shore & Central Railroad/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV
The North Shore R. R.
WHEN THE BUILDING of the Flushing R.R. was first being discussed about 1850, a wave of enthusiasm spread through all the North Shore villages on the island from Flushing eastward to Huntington. The developers of the original Long Island R.R. had seen fit in the 1830's and 40's to locate the pioneer line through the center of the island, ignoring the old and populous villages on the north and south shore. With the Long Island R.R. opened through to Greenport in 1844, there seemed little likelihood of the railroad giving service to these wayside communities, especially on the North Shore, where the steep grades and the location of the villages in valleys at the head of deep inlets from the Sound presented serious engineering problems.
When the Flushing R.R. project came up, therefore, about 1850, the North Shore villages saw in it the possibility of realizing their dream of railroad connection with the outside world. It is difficult for us today to realize the deep isolation of these rural communities before the coming of the railroad. Life in these hamlets was static and contact with the outside world limited to stage coach accommodation once or twice a week. The railroad was not merely a tremendous prestige symbol in the nineteenth century, but a very real lifeline to the great world outside, for it annihilated the old obstacle of distance, and reduced the travel of days to hours and minutes.
As soon as the construction of the Flushing R.R. became a certainty in 1852, the villages to the east, particularly Huntington, showed strong interest in the project by booming the idea of an extension in the local newspapers and holding rallies of the townspeople. The directors of the Flushing R.R. were themselves open to suggestions of continuing the road eastward, and were not necessarily committed to a Flushing terminus. On August 30, 1853, a corps of engineers and surveyors commenced a survey beginning at Kissena Boulevard in Flushing and striking across country, passing south of Flushing Cemetery and north of Alley Pond. By the end of this preliminary survey, twenty-two miles had been covered with three or four possible lines laid out. By the end of 1853 it had become apparent that the Flushing R.R. company had means to build to Flushing only, and talk of an extension eastward died away.
Three years later in 1856 another attempt to arouse public interest was made, this time at Manhasset, but again nothing happened. Three years more passed and in 1859 certain prominent and wealthy estate owners in Bayside, Great Neck and Manhasset began to discuss seriously the feasibility of organizing a road to Glen Cove. In the preceding year the Flushing R.R. had gone into bankruptcy, and there was some hesitation about any new railroad projects pending the court's disposition of the Flushing road.
In the year 1863 the obscurity that had hitherto cloaked the activities of the North Shore backers was dispelled. On June 29 at a meeting at Little Neck a company was formally organized; it was resolved to build eastward to Manhasset, and to place on the market 8,000 shares of stock at $25 each. At this first meeting 4,700 shares of stock at $117,500 were subscribed. The initial meeting of the Board of Directors was held on July 16, and at a subsequent meeting held August 29, 1863, a committee was appointed with power to obtain a new survey of the route with maps of the same, and estimates of the cost of the proposed road. The legal organization of the company was perfected on September 23, 1863. The road was to be known as the "North Shore R. R. Company" and its backers included many of the most prominent names in North Hempstead Town, such as Messenger, Mitchell, Willets, Bell, Mott and Udall.
During August and September 1863 all the remaining stock was subscribed and the company had two or three possible routes surveyed. As soon as the surveyors appeared with their chains, a lively excitement ensued, every property owner urging that the road be located on his neighbor's property and not on his own. This was especially true in Flushing. It soon developed that there were two main routes under consideration: the direct one which continued the Flushing R.R. track eastward in a straight line, and the meadow route, which dropped south from the Flushing R.R. track at the Flushing Creek drawbridge and skirted the south end of the village. When it became obvious to the directors that every possible route would expose them to abuse from some quarter, they resolved to adopt the direct route through the center of Flushing Village.
The direct route had much to recommend it; it passed through the center of population and avoided the necessity of building a station in the meadows far out of town; it was also the shortest route and the straightest, and the one favored by the press and many of the villagers.
The first month of the new year 1864 saw the acquisition of the right-of-way from Little Neck to Manhasset, and the opening of this stretch to bidders. The Flushing Village right-of-way remained in doubt. On February 2, 1864 the thirty or more bids for grading and bridging were opened and the contract for the whole road awarded to a contractor named N. H. Decker. To expedite construction on the west end at Flushing, it was necessary to resolve the thorny question of route. Those property owners who were opposed to the direct route applied to the Supreme Court for a commission, and three men were appointed with authority to decide on the route and to assess damages. Many in Flushing deplored this appeal to law and felt that the property owners should have bowed to the opinion of a majority of the villagers. The Flushing press had come out unanimously for the direct route, and so did the Trustees, as being the one that would be least injurious to private interests, and the only one, the location of which would not be prejudicial to the growth and prosperity of the village.
A complication in the controversy was the uncertainty over the grade at the Bowne Street and Union Street crossings. Many who were in favor of the direct route disliked the idea of the railroad making a deep chasm through Flushing east of Main Street where the land was more elevated. It was suggested that nearly everyone would be satisfied if the North Shore road were to run in a cut with properly walled sides, and with Bowne Street and Union Street carried over the cut on bridges. By covering up the cut altogether on the east side of Main Street where the cut began, it would be possible to blot out from view altogether any unsightly railroad operation. It so happened at this time and for many years thereafter that the land between Main and Union Streets alongside the right-of-way was the site of the Flushing Institute, whose stately Greek revival edifice would be injured by railroad operation.
This compromise drew an immediately favorable public reaction, and the commissioners were grateful to be able to give the plan their formal authorization on March 2, 1864. The North Shore R.R. officials were not altogether pleased at the prospect of being saddled with the expense of making an extensive railroad cut through Flushing and erecting bridges besides, but realized that it would be wise to accept the solution that pleased almost everyone and promised an end to expensive lawsuits.
As finally determined, the grade from Main Street and 1,100 feet eastward to Union Street provided for a rise of 67 feet to the mile; from thence 600 feet to Bowne Street, of 68 feet to the mile; and for the next 1,000 feet of 95 feet to the mile. Approximately, 43,000 cubic feet of earth had to be removed, and the total damages for bridges, land and retaining walls came to almost $30,000. This dismal prospect was somewhat surprisingly and pleasantly relieved by the generous donation of the whole of the right-of-way through the Flushing Institute grounds by Elias Fairchild, its principal, one of the property owners who had originally opposed the railroad in the courts.
With the troublesome question of the right-of-way disposed of, Mr. Decker, the contractor, could begin active construction of the road. Work was begun on February 25, 1864 on the land of Mr. Daniel T. Smith, who conveyed to the North Shore company at the very low price of $1,391.20 nine acres of land at Great Neck for the depot ground and terminus. With the approach of good working weather in the spring of 1864 the contractor broke ground at four or five more locations. Meanwhile, another commission of three men was appointed by the court to assess damages along the right-of-way through Bayside and Little Neck. The awards made by these commissioners are full of historic interest and seem fantastic when contrasted with the high value of Queens County land today:
Robert M. Bell, $2,960, Francis Lewis Boulevard to Bell Boulevard.
Thomas W. Willets, $2,600, Auburndale Lane to Francis Lewis Boulevard.
John Bowne (3 acres), $3,500, both sides of Northern Boulevard crossing.
Edward A. Lawrence, $4,800, Bell Boulevard to Little Neck Meadows (12 acres).
C. H. Hunt, $2,100, corner of Main Street and Forty-first Avenue, Flushing.
Joseph H. King, $6,000, 157th Street to 160th Street, Murray Hill, (1¾ acres through nursery grounds).
Mrs. Murray, $2,500, 155th Street to 157th Street, Murray Hill.
The high King award represented not only damages for land but indemnification for the destruction of a large quantity of nursery stock. In order to recoup part of this outlay, the railroad ran ads in the papers offering a large variety of trees, shrubs, vines, etc. "for sale cheap." By the end of the year all the right-of-way from Flushing through to Little Neck Creek had been acquired at a cost of approximately $50,000. By the end of the 1864 working season over two miles of the right-of-way had been graded from Bell Boulevard to Auburndale Lane. Fifty men were at work on the line. The track was laid at intervals and in three places work trains were in operation. Even more might have been accomplished had not one of the sub-contractors absconded with the funds, leaving his men unpaid. The aggrieved workers quit in a body and the local justices had their hands full instituting suits for the recovery of claims.
In March of 1865 the ground had sufficiently thawed to renew building operations. The main efforts during this season were devoted to the digging of the cut through Flushing and its accompanying masonry embankments, and the building of the trestle across the Little Neck meadows. This latter task proved much more difficult and expensive than the engineers or the directors had originally thought. Four times as much piling was required than had been originally calculated, and it seemed that the meadows themselves were insatiable in the amount of fill they required. Day after day for weeks on end upwards of 700 loads of dirt and rubble daily were emptied onto the right-of-way and this huge mass sank out of sight within hours into the soft muck of the creek bottom, leaving no trace. It became necessary to buy fill, for the cuts along the line could not furnish a sufficient amount to meet the need; in this way the roadbed inched forward laboriously at about three to five feet a day at the most.
By the end of June the Lawrence cut at Bayside where the road descends to the meadows was completed and all efforts were concentrated at the Flushing end. In July the finishing touches were put to the tunnel and tunnel portal just east of Main Street on the Flushing Institute grounds. The track through the tunnel and across Main Street giving a physical connection with the New York & Flushing R.R. was completed in August. During September the deep cut between Union and Bowne Streets was under way and masonry embankments of red freestone were installed.
By the close of the year 1865 the track was laid and graded from Bowne Street to the meadows. East of the meadows the right-of-way was graded and ballasted and part of the iron laid from Douglaston through to the Great Neck terminal. In November all work came to a halt for want of funds. The North Shore officers estimated at the time that an additional $20,000 would put the road in running order, and urged the property owners and wealthy residents of the Necks who would be convenienced by the road to subscribe and not leave the burden of financing the road to a few.
As soon as some additional money had been raised from stock levies and new subscriptions, the work, now so close to completion, was resumed. On January 22, 1866 laborers began work on the Union Street bridge in Flushing. Because of financial stringency the North Shore officials attempted to substitute a thirty foot bridge in place of one that would span the full width of the street. An outcry on the part of the property owners, encouraged by the local newspapers, arose, and the Trustees of the village remonstrated with the railroad people and prevailed upon them to restore the wide bridge that had been originally planned. A similar dispute over the size of the bridge at Bowne Street was amicably settled in the same manner.
While the Flushing cut was being brought to completion, finishing touches were being applied to the remaining line to the eastward; things went so well that an opening date of July 15 was set by the directors. On Friday, August 31, 1866, the first trial trip was made through from Flushing to Great Neck without mishap. As yet no depot buildings had been put up and the turntable at Great Neck had not yet been installed.
Almost two months passed quietly in leveling up the track and ballasting the rails, and then on Saturday, October 27, 1866, the directors threw open the road to public travel. At the beginning only one train ran per day in each direction, leaving Great Neck at 7:30 A.M. and Hunter's Point at 4 P.M. The maiden trip was made so quietly that the conductor had to dismount from the cars in the vicinity of 207th Street, Bayside, and let down the bars in the fence separating the Thomas C. Bell and Robert M. Bell farms, an action which moved the local paper to comment embarrassedly: "To get out and let down the bars must not be considered a characteristic of railroading on Long Island. As soon as the trains run regularly, the bars will be kept down."
During the season of 1867 the North Shore R.R. completed its road, erecting a few station buildings and finishing the Union and Bowne Streets bridges. In addition the service was increased to two trips a day each way, the new train leaving Hunter's Point at 9:30 A.M. and departing from Great Neck at 12:30 P.M. The North Shore R.R. from the first made no attempt to operate as an independent road; at the time of incorporation a contract had been concluded with the New York & Flushing R.R. to operate the six-mile line as an eastern extension of the Flushing railroad. The contract called for payment to the New York & Flushing of one-half the gross receipts of the North Shore R.R., and this agreement was signed on September 26, 1863.
The cost of the road had been far above any of the original estimates. In Flushing the various property owners had resisted each and every line proposed and it had become necessary to resort to the expensive process of appointing commissioners. Many residents along the line had made fair promises to the directors, who were led to the belief that these parties would willingly convey the small strip needed through their lands for a trifling consideration or for a fair compensation at most. In the end human nature asserted itself and these same persons were often the most extortionate and unreasonable in their demands. Only five landowners donated land or transferred it at small cost, and the total value of such property came to only $3,000, not including the Daniel Smith gift of the Great Neck station area. In all other cases the North Shore company was forced to meet claims that clearly showed a disposition to realize as much as possible, and to mulct the company to the full extent of the law.
The most costly segment on the whole line was the Flushing cut required by a decision of the Commission of 1864. While the line of the road was unquestionably improved by the lowering of the grade, it entailed an extra expense upon the company of not less than $30,000, and the final cost of the one mile road from Main Street to Murray Street came to $87,000, a very large sum for that day.
With the North Shore road completed and in actual operation, many persons living to the eastward, especially in Huntington, began to encourage the directors to extend the road along the north shore as far east as Northport. In 1867 the Long Island R.R.'s North Shore Branch ended at Syosset, and the present Oyster Bay Branch at Glen Cove; the desire of these eastern communities for railroad contact with the outside world is therefore understandable.
In April 1866 a mass meeting had been held at Huntington and President Stearns of the New York & Flushing addressed the residents, giving them facts and figures on the proposed road. Stearns, it would appear, spoke favorably about the project with the officers of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, where his opinions as ex-superintendent of that road carried some weight. The result was that the Jersey railroad people offered to absorb one-half the stock of the proposed road if the Huntington people would subscribe for the other half. Over the summer of 1866 the stock was placed on sale and sold well. By November there was enough money on hand to employ surveyors to lay out the road. In December the subscribers were levied on for 5% to meet the minimum legal requirement necessary to formally incorporate a road. By March 1867 the requisite money had been subscribed, and the new company organized under the name of The North Side Railroad Company of Long Island. By the fall of 1867 the new road was ready to be let out to contract.
When it became virtually certain that the extension to Huntington would become a reality, Oliver Charlick, president of the Long Island R.R., shrewdly judged the time propitious for a move of his own. The proposed new road posed a dangerous threat to his Glen Cove branch, and would seriously lower the revenues at Syosset. He, therefore, with dramatic suddenness began building an extension of his own northeast from Syosset through the hills to Woodbury and on to Huntington and Northport. The new branch opened in April 1868. With the completion of the Long Island R.R. route support for the continuation of the North Shore R.R. fell off, and all hopes of future penetration eastward effectively ended. When, years later, the North Shore Branch was extended, such construction was not eastward as the promoters of the 1860's fondly dreamed, but northeast to a terminus at Port Washington.