USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 3 The Beginnings of Roman Catholicism in Connecticut > Part 11
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and the Boston and Providence Railroad then terminated on the east shore. The first schedule provided for trains to leave Providence, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons, and Stonington, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, upon the arrival of the New York boat.
In 1848 the road was extended to the center of Provi- dence, and a physical connection made with the new line of the Boston and Providence Railroad, opened in 1847, in conjunction with the Providence and Worcester Rail- road, which had just completed its construction into Providence. It is now, like practically all the railroads operating in Connecticut, a component part of the system of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, and comprises a portion of the main line be- tween New York and Boston.
The first railroad to operate entirely within the boundaries of the state was the Hartford and New Haven Railroad. This road was not incorporated until 1837, but was opened a few months before the Norwich and Worcester Railroad, though some two years after the first operation of the Stonington road.
Professor Alexander C. Twining (Yale, 1820), one of the leading contemporary engineers of the country, was retained in the autumn of 1835, in order to insure that advocates of all the various possible locations would be "patiently and publicly heard," because each of the several communities which lay along the alternative routes was most anxious for the road to pass through its vicinity. Locations under consideration included the whole territory from the Connecticut river on the east, to the canal between New Haven and Farmington on the west. Competition was keen on the part of all the com- munities, except, apparently, the good people of Newing- ton, who presented a petition to the directors of the rail-
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road, representing that they were "a peaceable orderly people," and begging that their quiet might not be interrupted by "steam cars and an influx of strangers." Professor Twining, after a great deal of study, recom- mended a route through Meriden and Berlin, which is still the route of the main line of railroad between New Haven and Hartford.
The tidewater terminal at New Haven was at the Tomlinson Bridge, then a toll bridge between New Haven and Fair Haven. The railroad acquired control of the bridge and constructed a steamboat dock adjacent to it, to which a channel was dredged. An arrangement had been made with the New Haven Steamboat Company providing for train-steamboat connection at New Haven for New York, but the company operating the Connecti- cut river steamboats between Hartford and New York, which saw in the railroad service disastrous competition, threatened to stop its boat at New Haven to pick up passengers. The New Haven Steamboat Company officers, fearful of the result, hastily sold their company to the Connecticut River Company which promptly assigned an "old ferry boat, utterly unfit for any line" to fulfil the contract obligations with the railroad. Conse- quently, the new railroad was obliged to organize its own steamboat line to New York.
Operation of the railroad was opened to Meriden in December, 1838, and on December 14, 1839, it was so far completed that a train was "conducted from New Haven to the engine house at Hartford." The Hartford station was established near the site of what is now the Jeremy Hoadley Memorial Bridge in Bushnell Park. The station building itself faced what is now Wells Street, and the terminal tracks were on a bridge over the river. This first Hartford passenger station was used until 1850, when a
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٠٠ ٣دعا بدو+جبا+. المستفيوج٠٠٠ ٠٦٠٠ ٠٥٠٥:
NEW HAVEN UNION STATION, 1849 Over the railroad tracks at Chapel Street (From an original wash drawing of Henry Austin, Architect: Yale Library)
HARTFORD UNION STATION, 1850 Corner of Spruce and Asylum Streets (From the City Directory of Hartford, 1850)
I STOCKBRIDGE & PITTSFIELD
X WESTFIEL
TO W.
MASS.
SPR
To Palmer+
1850
SOUTHBRIDGE
ASHLEY FALLS
1
1
CANAAN
7
1
1.981
18 E681
1871
RIVER
1871
1902
OL81
GRANBY
STAFFORD SPGS.
MECHANICSVILLE
WINSTED
TARIFFVILLE
PUTNAM
NEW HARTFORD
1876
SIMSBURY
MEADOW
1681
HARTFORD
=1844=
1863
VERNON
1872
1840
1.
148
FERRY
1849
1850
1850
HAR
1850
1847-
NCHESTER IDENCE 1849
1839
WILLIMANTIC
1854
RIVER POINT
1850
PLAINFIELD
PLAINVILLE
4981
1871
BERLIN
18.50
CRO
1877
1840
R.
R. R.
NEW MILFORD
1870
1839
R. R.
~1985
WICKFORD JCT.
WATERBURY
1888
1888
MERIDEN
NORWICH
1840
1881
KINGSTON
BROOKFIELD
1838
1870
ALLYNS POINT
1837
1
1881
1840
TO FISHKILL (BEACON) | & POUGHKEEPSIE
BOTSFORD
BETHEL
NEW HAVEN
DERBY JCT.
YBROOK
1871
NEW HAVEN & NEW LONDON
187/
1870 BRANCHVILLE
1840
1849
R.R. 1848
NEW YORK FENWICK
FEREL -----
STEAMBOAT
CEAN
DANBURY
1852
BRIDGEPORT
NEW YORK & NEW
1848
1
S
GREENPORT
-LEGEND -
.
1848
S. NORWALK WILSON POINT
- RAILROADS CONSTRUCTED SUBSEQUENT TO 1859.
STAMFORD
G
N
0
L
LONG
ATLANTIC
FERRY TO VY OYSTER BAY
189}
-----
CAMBOAT TO NEW YORK
ISLAND
W YORK L.I. R.R. C
- RAILROADS CONSTRUCTED PRIOR TO 1859.
1882
TO NEW YORK 1848
-
HOUSATONIC R.R.
8881
1849
BRIDGE 1889. NEW LONDON
Thames
GROTON
MIDWAY
NEW LONDON & STONINGTON R.R.
1
STONINGTON
POINT JUDITH
--
52
O NEW YORK
HAVEN
DEVON
STEAMBOAT
--
STE
-
-
D
N
NEW CANAAN 1
IT TO NEW YORK
1893
HARTFORD & NEW HAVEN
NEW LONDON
River
1843
1868
HAWLEYVILLE
NAUGATUCK
1848 NEW HAVEN
COLCHESTER
WILLIMANTIC
& FISHKILL 1854
1872
1855
NORTHAMPTON
1848
WESTFIELD
1850
MIDDLETOWN
1849
1837
BOSTON
NEW
C
O
1874
0
1850
1850 NEWW BRITAIN
1873
B. R.
1837
R. R.
H.P. S.F. R.R.
BRISTOL
FARMINGTON
N.
1854
HOUSATONIC
LITCHFIELDO
CRANSTON
Be
HOPE
1880
YORK
187/
18 50
1850
WESTWAY ROCKVILLE
1850
1873
PINE
R. R.
0481
187!
PROVIDENCE
Y
COLLINSVILLE
HARTFORD
POI
PALMER
1837
1854
R. R.
EAST
PASCOAG
SUFFIELD
R. R.
1840
1854
THOMPSON
1873
1891
HARRISVILLE
WIMELROSE
HOUSATONIC
1842
N. H. & N. CO.
1855 TO NORTHAMPTON
To Worcester
1
WEBSTER
TO BLACKSTONE
1867
STEAMBOAT TO NEW YORK
PRO!
NEW YORK, PROVIDENCE
9481 ¢
ARRAGANSET
PIER
1881
1872
1837 -
BRIDGE 1870
1858
1852
RIDGEFIELD
NORWALK OR
CEDAR HILL
1852
STEAMBOAT TO NEW YORK
---
0
1868
DANBURY
1899
NORWICH & WORCESTER
-1855
AMSTON
WATERTOWNO
MANCHESTER
TO POUGHKEEPSIE
MAP OF CONNECTICUT, SHOWING THE RAILR ROUTES AND THE DATES OF THEIR OPENING
NAUGATUCK
LOCOMOTIVE "JERICHO"
On the Naugatuck Railroad, with the first vestibule train operated in this country, about 1857 (Photograph from C. B. Burr)
LOCOMOTIVE "ONTALAUNEE"
On the New London, Willimantic and Palmer Railroad, about 1850 (From a photograph of a daguerreotype in the New London Historical Society, by C. B. Burr)
new station was built, jointly with the Hartford, Provi- dence and Fishkill Railroad, near the corner of Spruce and Asylum Streets, not far from the site of the present railroad station. The new joint station was described as being very elaborate, of "Chatham or Portland Stone in the Italian style," extending three hundred feet on Spruce Street and ninety-four feet on Asylum Street. The tracks ran through the building at ground level, crossing Asylum Street at grade.
The question of extending the railroad north of Hart- ford to Springfield to connect with the Western Railroad for Boston and for Albany and the West was in the minds of the directors from the first. In 1842, as soon as the operation between New Haven and Hartford was well established, necessary charters having been obtained some years before under the names of the Hartford and Springfield Railroad Company in Connecticut and the Hartford and Springfield Railroad Corporation in Massa- chusetts, the companies were united to secure the desired object. The line through to Springfield was opened December 9, 1844, bringing the New Haven route into direct competition with the Norwich and the Stonington lines for the New York-Boston through travel.
In 1847 a short branch line was built from the railroad at Hartford to the Connecticut river at that point and in 1850 the people of Middletown, long anxious for a rail connection, constructed another branch from the railroad at Berlin to their city.
The Boston, Norwich and New London Railroad was, as has been said, chartered in Connecticut in 1832. In 1836 it was consolidated with the Norwich and Worcester Railroad of Massachusetts under the name of the Nor- wich and Worcester Railroad. Grants of $400,000 from Massachusetts and of $200,000 from the town of Norwich
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permitted the company to proceed with construction. As has been observed, this road, like the Stonington road, was planned largely to handle through traffic as a link in the journey between New York and Boston, connecting the Boston and Worcester Railroad with Long Island Sound. A terminal, with track connection, was built at the corner of Foster and Norwich Streets in Worcester, jointly with the other railroads terminating in that city. After numerous delays and difficulties, the road was opened in March, 1840, between the joint terminal at Worcester, and Market Street, Norwich, where transfer wasmadedirectly between cars and steamboat at the wharf.
An extension from Norwich south to Allyn's Point on the east bank of the Thames river was completed in 1843 to eliminate part of the steamboat river route-an advantage, especially in winter. New York traffic was for a time handled from Allyn's Point across the Sound to the Lond Island Railroad at Greenport, Long Island, by means of a ferry. Congress had "granted a liberal appro- priation" for deepening the channel of the river, and a "light boat" was anchored at the mouth of New London harbor to enable steamboats to enter without difficulty, "even in foggy weather."
In 1846 there were five important through routes available for transport of passengers and freight between New York and Boston-all combinations of rail and steamboat lines. That these provided "warm competi- tion" was somewhat gleefully pointed out in the current Railroad journal. The first route lay from Boston through Providence and Stonington by rail and connected at Ston- ington with the steamers Oregon and Knickerbocker. The second route from New York was over the Long Island Railroad to Greenport, thence by the ferry steamboat New Haven to Allyn's Point and thence by rail through Worces-
18
ter to Boston. The third route was by rail on the New Haven to Springfield line, connecting with steamboats on Long Island Sound. The other two routes were by steamboat, one to Providence and one to Fall River, at each of which there was rail connection to Boston. The steamers on the Providence line were "all first class vessels with patent life boats and in addition to the extensive cabin accommodations, having pleasant private state- rooms" where "the passengers could have a comfortable night's rest without the annoyance of a ferry, or being disturbed at midnight to change for boats or cars, so much complained of especially by ladies and families." The new Fall River steamboats were of fourteen hundred tons dis- placement, the largest on Long Island Sound. The Fall River Line steamers have since that early date main- tained unquestioned supremacy on the Sound.
V
CONNECTICUT's next railroad chronologically was the Housatonic Railroad, another north-south line designed, like the Norwich and the New Haven routes, to connect the Western Railroad of Massachusetts with Long Island Sound. In this instance, so far as through traffic was concerned, one of the important objectives was to provide an all-year-round route between New York and Albany in conjunction with Long Island Sound steamboats to Bridgeport.
The Housatonic Railroad was chartered in 1836. The original charter, apparently through an error in typog- raphy, was designated in the printed reports as "Ousa- tonic" although on the engrossed bill on file with the secretary of state, the name is correctly recorded as "Housatonic." The company was authorized to build a railroad from the north line of Connecticut near Canaan,
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down the valley of the Housatonic river to Brookfield, thence to Long Island Sound at Bridgeport. An alterna- tive route, which was not adopted, was provided, to run through Danbury and Ridgefield to the western boundary of the state, to connect with a possible railroad to New York City through Westchester county.
The city of Bridgeport, in its corporate capacity, granted $150,000 to the new company, possibly to insure that the railroad's southern terminal should be at Bridge- port. The directors, like their contemporaries elsewhere in Connecticut, strenuously urged state aid, and were much discouraged that the legislature refused assistance "in any form." The road was opened between Bridgeport and New Milford in 1840 and was completed to West Stockbridge in 1842, in coordination with the Berkshire Railroad of Massachusetts. Connection was effected through West Stockbridge with the Western Railroad by means of the West Stockbridge Railroad, and so the through rail route between Bridgeport and Albany was completed. Another connection was opened, on Decem- ber 28, 1849, to Pittsfield over the route of the Stock- bridge and Pittsfield Railroad from Van Deusenville, Massachusetts. The Housatonic was Bridgeport's only railroad until 1849 when the New York and New Haven Railroad was constructed through Bridgeport, and con- nections were made with it, and with the Naugatuck road.
The old Farmington Canal, which had held such high hopes in the 'twenties was quite moribund in the early 'forties. After a considerable amount of discussion, it was decided to convert the route into a railroad and in 1846 the charter was amended accordingly. Joseph E. Sheffield (founder of Sheffield Scientific School) was president, and Henry Farnam, who had been deeply interested in the old canal, was engineer and superintendent. Alexander C.
20
Twining was engaged to make the surveys, as he had done for the other roads in the neighborhood.
Much grading had been accomplished in constructing the canal, and the obvious location for the railroad was on the towpath, with modifications at the locks. The railroad as finally built, however, diverged from the canal route at a number of places. The directors optimistically reported that because the railroad was "destined to become the main stem of a great extent of future roads .. we have run it nearly straight and level instead of . following the canal."
The road was opened between New Haven and Plain- ville in January, 1848. The terminal at New Haven was temporarily located in the block between Temple Street and Hillhouse Avenue, south of the track. After comple- tion between New Haven and Plainville, the road was leased, for twenty years, for operation by the New York and New Haven Railroad, which was at that time com- pleting its construction into New Haven.
The directors subsequently determined to extend the road north from Plainville to connect with the Western Railroad. All kinds of difficulties, such as court injunction and refusal of charter, were experienced, which, it later developed, were largely inspired by the Hartford and New Haven Company in an endeavor to prevent the extension of the Canal Railroad into Massachusetts to form a competitive connection with the Western Rail- road. While, therefore, the road extensions were accom- plished from Plainville north to Farmington and to Collinsville, Simsbury, Granby, and Tariffville, in 1850, the connection with the Western Railroad at Westfield, Massachusetts, was not completed until 1855. The route to Northampton was completed in the following year.
The first road to be projected along the north shore of
2I
Long Island Sound, and the first east-west line con- structed in Connecticut, was the New York and New Haven Railroad, which was chartered in Connecticut in 1844. Among the incorporators were Joseph E. Sheffield, president of the Canal Railroad, and Samuel J. Hitch- cock, president of the Hartford road. The first president was Robert Schuyler who served for a number of years, and whose financial activities later caused the railroad acute embarrassment.
The company was authorized to operate over the tracks of the New York and Harlem Railroad from a connection "at or near Williams' Bridge" into New York City, and to construct a "single, double or treble railroad or way" from Williams' Bridge to New Haven. The directors employed Alexander C. Twining to make a survey of the various routes available between New York and New Haven. After painstaking and careful survey, Professor Twining submitted a comprehensive report in February, 1845. The road was finally built closely in accordance with his recommended location, except at short sections in Bridgeport and New Rochelle, and is operated very nearly on that general route today.
In locating the line through New Haven, advantage was taken of the right of way of the old Farmington Canal which passed under what is now Grand Avenue, and ran parallel with State Street to the canal basin which was on the site of the present railroad freight houses and shops near Water Street. The stretch of canal between Grand Avenue and Water Street was leased from the canal company in perpetuity, and was used jointly for the New York and New Haven and Canal Railroad tracks, three tracks being built in that section. East of Grand Avenue, a cut for two tracks was made through the city to the junction with the Hartford and New
22
Haven at its crossing over Mill river. The New York and New Haven Railroad was opened in December, 1848.
The Hartford and New Haven trains were thus largely diverted from their original terminal at the Tomlinson Bridge steamboat dock, and were run over the tracks provided by the New York and New Haven Company to the joint passenger station which was constructed above the tracks at Chapel Street. The joint terminal was used also by the Canal Railroad and, later, by the New Haven and New London Railroad, by the Air Line to Middletown, and by the New Haven and Derby Rail- road completed in 1871.
This joint or Union Station at Chapel Street was re- ported by the directors as the "only departure from a strict rule of economy" which had been observed in the construction of the railroad. It was designed, they re- ported, "by a popular architect6 of the city," and was "of ornament and elegance" though "neither more spacious or elegant than was due to the central portion of the city which was occupied, the vast and necessary business to be accommodated and the style of buildings in the immediate vicinity." The directors acknowledged indebtedness for the gift of the large clock, "to the liberality of the owner7 of one of the buildings, who has done much for the architectural ornament of the city." The new station was described by a contemporary observer :
This beautiful edifice is situated in Union Street and occu- pies the entire square from Chapel to Cherry Street. . . . The
6 Henry Austin (1804-1891), designer of many well-known New Haven buildings, including the City Hall, the former Yale University Library (now Dwight Chapel), and the gateway to the Grove Street Cemetery. He also designed the passenger stations of the Canal Railroad at Plainville and Collinsville.
7 James Brewster (1788-1866), a leading citizen of New Haven; prominent as a manufacturer of carriages; and the first president and a director of the Hartford and New Haven Railroad.
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style of architecture is Italian. On either side of the main hall or platform, are extensive Parlors, that on the left being for the accommodation of ladies, and is furnished with a profusion of rich and costly sofas, divans, chairs, ottomans, mirrors, etc. with convenient dressing rooms attached. Obliging servants are always in attendance. . .. The Parlor on the right is for gentlemen's use, and is to be furnished as a Reading Room ....
The Rail Road track ... is reached by easy flights of stairs. ... In the north tower ... is a clock with glazed face 8 feet in diameter. . .. This clock is to be illuminated with gas .... Twenty feet above the clock a large bell is suspended, the ringing of which indicates the arrival and departure of the trains of cars. A watchman being stationed in this building at night, this bell is usually the first to sound its note of alarm in cases of fire. From the belfry of this lofty tower ... the spectator looks down on a forest of luxuriant elms, maples, etc., intermingled with which are the stately mansions, beauti- ful cottages, towering spires and tasteful gardens of our sylvan city. ... Long may it stand as an enduring monument of the taste, the liberality and enterprise of its projectors.8
This was the depot which it was found necessary to "remodel" twice during the next two years, and which, about fifteen years later, was the subject of comment by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who, bringing his son (the late Justice Holmes) back from the South, referred to "New Haven ... cursed with a detestable depot, whose niggardly arrangements crowd the track so murderously close to the wall."9 In 1866, after a vast deal of bitter public criticism, the railroad was ordered by the state legislature "to make such alterations in the lighting and accommodation ... as will meet the approval of the Mayor and General Assembly." The facilities were en- tirely abandoned a few years later.
The contracts referred to above,1º with the Hartford
8 New Haven City directory, 1849-1850.
9 My hunt after 'The Captain.'
10 See above, pp. 22-23.
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and New Haven Railroad, were exceedingly complex. The Hartford road viewed with alarm the projected extension of the Canal Railroad paralleling it, and the New York and New Haven agreed to see that the Canal Railroad was not extended. The Hartford road agreed, on its part, to favor the New York road by making transfer difficult from rail to steamboats for travel be- tween New Haven and New York. Some discussion resulted in the state legislature, based upon various phases of the agreements, and a considerable amount of mutual recrimination developed amongst those directly and indirectly involved. In 1872 the two railroads con- solidated by mutual exchange of stock, forming the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad-the nucleus of the system which now serves southern New England.
VI
THE New London, Willimantic and Palmer Railroad constituted another north-south route planned to con- nect Long Island Sound and the Western Railroad of Massachusetts. The charter was granted in 1847 in Connecticut to the New London, Willimantic and Springfield Railroad, and in 1848 in Massachusetts to the New London, Willimantic and Palmer Railroad. The companies were consolidated in 1848 under the latter name.
The road was opened between New London and Willi- mantic in November, 1849; to Stafford Springs in March, 1850; and on September 20, 1850, to Palmer, where con- nection was made with the Western Railroad. This rail- road provided another link for New York-Boston travel, in combination with Sound steamboats, connecting at New London. A physical connection was established in 1855 at Norwich with the Norwich and Worcester Road, which for a short time used the west shore route as an
25
alternative to the Allyn's Point connection. This railroad is now known as the New London Northern and is operated by the Canadian National System as part of the Central Vermont Railroad.
Another north-south railroad was chartered in 1845, to run from Devon (formerly Naugatuck Junction) in the town of Milford to Winsted. This was known as the Naugatuck Railroad. It was not planned as part of any through route, but was intended to provide a rail outlet especially for the thriving manufacturing towns of Winsted and Waterbury.
Although the charter was granted in 1845, the com- pany was not definitely organized until 1848, when the stockholders met and elected the directors. The road was opened between what is now Devon and Waterbury, on June II, 1849, and to Winsted on September 24 of the same year. The directors resented the fact that "teams and stage coaches did not immediately suspend their operation" when theroad was opened, as had been expected.
An agreement was made by which the Naugatuck Railroad operated its trains over the tracks of the New York and New Haven Railroad from Devon across the Housatonic river into Bridgeport where the Naugatuck terminus was established. As the Housatonic Railroad already terminated in Bridgeport, an arrangement was made with that road for the "common use of grounds and wharves and for the repairs of engines and cars," which lasted for several years, after which each road maintained its own facilities at that point.
One of the earliest of Connecticut's railroad charters had been granted in 1833 for a small road planned to run between Hartford and Manchester, known as the Man- chester Railroad. The company, however, did not reach the organization stage. The Hartford and Providence
26
Railroad revived the old charter in 1847, and consolidated with the New York and Hartford Railroad (chartered in 1845) and the Providence and Plainfield Railroad (char- tered in 1846). The union, known as the Hartford, Provi- dence and Fishkill Railroad, was projected to secure a through overland route between Providence and the Hudson river.
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