USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 3 The Beginnings of Roman Catholicism in Connecticut > Part 12
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Construction work was completed between Hartford and Willimantic on December 1, 1849, and in 1854 ex- tended through to Providence. The route was opened from Hartford to Bristol in 1850, and extended to Water- bury in 1855, so that in 1855 there was through service between Providence and Waterbury. The line was ex- tended to Brewster, New York, in 1881, and in 1882, to the Hudson river at Fishkill Landing (now Beacon); whence trains were ferried across the river to Newburg.
The route through the city of Hartford utilized the tunnel and passenger station jointly with the New Haven-Springfield route as already indicated, and the rights of way of the two roads were adjacent between Hartford and Newington where the Fishkill Road di- verged to the westward for Waterbury. This east-west route, involving as it did crossing numerous valleys and ridges, necessitated expensive construction and resulted in heavy grades with consequent costly operation. Much of the territory served was rural, and remained so in spite of rail connection. Furthermore, many of the communi- ties were also served by other railroads-a condition which produced ruinous competition. After several re- organizations, which included comprehensive consolida- tions, the road became known in 1873 as the New York and New England Railroad and in 1895 as the New England Railroad.
The New Haven and New London Railroad was in-
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corporated in 1848 to operate, as its name implies, a line between New Haven and New London. The route, sur- veyed by Professor Twining, started at New Haven from the junction between the New York and New Haven and the Hartford and New Haven Railroads at Mill river; diverged eastward from the present main line at what is now an industrial sidetrack; passed through Fair Haven; crossed the harbor on an elaborate wood-truss bridge not far north of the present highway bridge at Grand Ave- nue; and rejoined the present main line at East Haven.
This railroad, opened for traffic on July 22, 1852, made a physical junction with the New London, Willimantic and Palmer road at New London, completing, via Norwich and Worcester, another route between Boston and New York which was all rail with the exception of a ferry crossing at the Connecticut river.
The New London and Stonington Railroad was incor- porated in 1852, to operate between Groton and Stoning- ton with a ferry connection across the Thames river at New London. This road was merged in 1856, before completion, with the New Haven and New London Railroad and was opened for traffic on December 30, 1858. The ferry gaps were eliminated by the Connecticut river bridge, built in 1870, and by that over the Thames river, erected in 1889. Thus was completed the Shore Line, which had been considered an impossibility half a cen- tury before.
The necessary ferry operations at Saybrook and New London were apparently not as troublesome as might have been expected. The railroad commission of Con- necticut in its report of 1853, referring to the Saybrook situation, indicated that the time lost at the ferry was:
.. . about five minutes more than would be lost in supplying the engine with wood and water at this place and passing over
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the river on a bridge. As the boat is of ample dimensions and arranged with many conveniences, the ferry is found in prac- tice rather of an accommodation than otherwise to the passen- gers of the road.
Dickens, in describing a railroad journey which he made between New York and Boston, thus referred to these ferry operations:
Two rivers have to be crossed and each time the whole train is banged aboard a big steamer. The steamer rises and falls with the river which the railroad don't do, and the train is banged up hill or banged down hill. In coming off the steamer at one of these crossings yesterday, we were banged up such a height that the rope broke and the carriage rushed back with a run down hill into the boat again. I whisked out in a moment, and two or three others after me, but nobody else seemed to care about it.II
Another of Connecticut's early railroad charters, again for a north-south railroad, was granted in 1835 to the Fairfield County Railroad. This road was planned to run between Norwalk and Danbury. Its construction was, however, delayed and in 1850 its name was changed to the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad. Construction was completed in 1852 under the stimulus of connection with the New York and New Haven Railroad, which had re- cently completed its route through South Norwalk. It was over the Danbury-Norwalk line that, in 1891, was opera- ted, for a short time, a route known as "The Eastern States Line," comprising through service between Boston and New York, with a car-ferry crossing the Sound from Wilson's Point, South Norwalk, to the Long Island Rail- road at Oyster Bay.
The Boston and New York Central Railroad was chartered in 1852 in Massachusetts. It constructed a line I John Forster, Life of Charles Dickens.
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by way of Blackstone, Massachusetts, to Mechanicsville (six miles only being in Connecticut) which connected with the Norwich and Worcester Railroad. This com- pleted a route which was opened in 1854 for through travel between Boston and New York via the Norwich and Worcester Railroad and its associated steamboats. Operation of this route became much involved and it was soon discontinued. This short piece of track became sub- sequently part of the New York and New England Rail- road route12 (a consolidation of a number of companies, including the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Rail- road), across New England from Boston via Blackstone, Putnam, Willimantic, Hartford, and Danbury, to the Hudson river at Beacon.
The New York and Boston Railroad had been char- tered in 1846 but had failed before completion. The project was subsequently revived under the name of the Boston and New York Air Line, and the road was com- pleted between New Haven and Middletown in 1870 and to Willimantic in 1873, establishing a new route between Boston and New York. It was over that route that the all-white Ghost Train was operated which provided the inspiration for Kipling's story, "007."
Connecticut had no direct rail connection with the West (there being no bridge across the Hudson river south of Albany) until the construction, in 1888, of the Poughkeepsie bridge, one of the most notable bridges of its time. This bridge provided convenient all-rail routes from the West via both Canaan and Danbury to all southern New England. Another direct rail route to the South and West was established in 1916 by the construc- tion of the Hell Gate bridge in New York City, connecting the New Haven and the Pennsylvania Railroad systems.
12 See above, p. 27.
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VII
THE first era of Connecticut railroad history extended over a period of about two decades terminating with the completion of the rail route along the south shore of the state. After 1859 there was practically no new construc- tion until the early 'seventies when for two decades Connecticut, with the rest of the nation, was swept into the whirlpool of railroad building.
The construction of new rail routes ended in the late 'eighties, when an era of consolidation was inaugurated. A large number of independently owned railroads, many bitterly competing with each other and many chronically moribund, were merged during the years following into a single coordinated unit. After that, railroad growth be- came primarily intensive, and attention was given to added tracks, lower grades, easier curves, heavier rails, stronger bridges, more effective locomotives and cars, more highly developed signal systems, more efficient terminal facilities, and other improvements.
At that time appeared the meteoric electric interurban railway systems, which within a space of thirty years grew to a position of primary importance and then prac- tically disappeared with the advent of the high-speed automobile and the inauguration of the vast program of national and state highway construction which is now under way.
An attempt has been made to present, without pointing any moral or drawing any conclusions, a very general and informal picture of Connecticut's railroads, princi- pally during the first twenty years of the state's railroad history. The railroads of that period experienced their triumphs as well as their difficulties. They had already, during those first two decades, become a thoroughly
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integral part of the life of the state which they served. That they were providing inspiration in that era of some- what effulgent literary style, is indicated by the efforts of the anonymous author of "The Railroad enterprise, its progress, management and utility," which appeared in the New Englander for August, 1851:
We must not forget that the railroad is but one step in the ascending staircase, on which the race are mounting, guided and cheered by heavenly voices. The resources of infinite grace and wisdom are not exhausted, and we only mark the begin- ning of wonders which shall co-operate with the divine purpose in the redemption of man, and the restoration of a ruined world.
The procession of heavy cars, winding among the hills after the panting engine, a seeming realization of the dragon, fabled in the middle ages, whose breath was flame, and whose course was as a rushing tempest, always interests and quickens by its illustration of power and skill. The eye never wearies of watching a railroad train as it whirls on its appointed track, seemingly instinct with life, running in merry wantonness its matchless race unwearied, and screaming madly in the pride of its power. But when we remember that it is the product of human intelligence, and a token of divine love, and reflect on its promise for the future, the spectacle is invested with moral grandeur, giving us courage for the conflict to-day and prophe- sying of a good time to come, when creation shall rejoice in the liberty of the sons of God. "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."
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TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE
STATE OF CONNECTICUT
QUI
SUSTINET
TRANSTULIT
COMMITTEE ON
HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS
XLVI Forty Years of Highway Development in Connecticut, 1895-1935
THE STAFF OF THE STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT
PUBLISHED FOR THE TERCENTENARY COMMISSION BY THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1935
The Printing-Office of the Yale University Press
TERCENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT
COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS
XLVI
Forty Years of Highway Development in Connecticut, 1895-1935
THE STAFF OF THE STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT I N the colonial period, the general court, the county courts, and the towns shared the responsibility for laying out and maintaining highways in Connecti- cut. The actual task of maintenance largely de- volved upon the towns, but the work was poorly done and its conduct was the subject of constant irritation and complaint. Miss Isabel S. Mitchell has told well the history of Roads and road-making in colonial Connecticut.I
Directly after the establishment of the federal govern- ment under the constitution, there swept over the coun- try a demand for more and better highways. The under- taking seemed too great, too difficult, and too expensive to be handled entirely as a governmental function. Conse- quently, the custom grew up in the several states, of which Connecticut was one of the earliest, of chartering private corporations to maintain specified roads and of authorizing them to recoup themselves for the costs by I No. XIV in this series.
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collecting tolls from the users of the highways. These toll roads, known as turnpike roads, had an extensive devel- opment. In Connecticut, between 1795 and 1853, one hundred and twenty-one such franchises were granted. These companies provided improved roads for the steadily increasing traffic on the main routes of travel and trade.
The growth of the railroads, which began in Connecti- cut in 1837, and popular dissatisfaction with the toll system led to the decline of the turnpike corporations after about 1850. Railroads provided only a partial solution of the transportation problem, so that the state and the towns were confronted by an ever-growing demand for more and better roads. As the turnpike corporations surrendered their franchises and abandoned the care of the roads in their charge, the necessity for governmental action became more insistent. With the growth of population and trade the use of highways in- creased. Methods of improved road construction were also being devised to meet the requirements of heavier traffic, but they were rarely utilized outside the cities and larger villages. With the growth of traffic, there became more apparent how much greater was the use of inter- town highways between the centers of population than of the merely local roads. Though such highways required more and better upkeep than the minor roads, the town authorities often failed to make the requisite differentia- tion, and the state highway laws were inadequate to cope with the newer problems. Furthermore, the question of expense was making necessary a greater degree of state responsibility, for often an important highway might run through a small town which could not afford the cost of its upkeep and, indeed, had only a minor interest in it. Such were some of the reasons that led to the legislation
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of 1895 which marked the beginning of a new era in the history of Connecticut's highways.
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IT is significant that the beginning of Connecticut's real advance in road-making should have coincided not only with the closing of its last turnpike but also with the organization of the state highway department. The year 1895 beheld the ending of the old order with the passing of the Derby Turnpike, and the coming of the new with the act of the legislature creating a triple-headed com- mission which became effective on July I of that year. Three men, James H. MacDonald of New Haven, W. R. McDonald of Cromwell, and A. C. Sternberg of West Hartford, were entrusted with the care of Connecticut highways. Their work, for which they received eight dollars a day and expenses, consisted mostly in providing for the application of traprock to sections of roadway in an attempt to construct some type of hard-surface road. The drainage was also taken care of on those sections.
In 1897, the legislature abolished this triple-headed commission and appointed as state highway commis- sioner, at an annual salary of three thousand dollars, James H. MacDonald of New Haven, one of the trium- virate. MacDonald continued in this office until February 26, 1913, at which time he was succeeded by Charles J. Bennett of Hartford. Bennett served for ten years, and on July 1, 1923, was succeeded by the present commis- sioner, John A. Macdonald of Putnam, who is serving his fourth four-year term.
Under the act of 1897, the procedure was as follows: The towns selected the highways to be improved, adver- tised for bids, let the contracts, and the work of the department consisted chiefly in supervision.
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In 1908, a Trunk Line system was laid out by Com- missioner James H. MacDonald. According to this system, through routes were designated as Trunk Lines, and their construction and maintenance were provided for by state appropriations. On the other hand, those roads which served either to connect Trunk Line roads or provide communication between the various towns or communities were called State Aid roads.
A further change was brought about by the entry of the United States government into the schemes of road- building maintained by the various states. This has taken two forms, the designation by the federal govern- ment of certain main highways as of sufficient national importance to justify the government's aid in their con- struction or reconstruction; and the emergency relief work undertaken by the national administration in 1932 and following years in connection with its public works ex- penditures. This has enormously increased the duties and the work of the state aid agent in Connecticut. For years his office had been the connecting link between the towns and the state highway department in the work on State Aid roads.
Thus the conduct of road-building in Connecticut has grown through action of the towns, the county courts, and the state to cooperation by the national government, as the increase in population and the necessity for better means of communication and better facilities for trade, travel, and national defense made it more apparent that the proper solution of the highway problem depended upon concerted action by all the parties interested in each particular road.
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III
THE first highways in Connecticut were poorly laid out and hastily and imperfectly constructed. The materials used in road-building were those most easily procured. In fact, the methods used in the construction and repair of the first highways were quite comparable to the untrained efforts of any single individual of today who, without experience in work of this kind, attempts to better an entrance into a camp site or an inaccessible farm. They consisted in removing such obstacles as could easily be dislodged, in dumping into wet or swampy land whatever soil could be obtained near at hand, together with loose rocks and other materials. The results were, of course, unsatisfactory and not at all conducive to extended road- building.
The decided impetus which accrued to road-making in the latter part of the nineteenth century was due, in no small measure, to the invention, by Eli Whitney Blake2 of New Haven, of a stone-crusher which was capable of turning out surfacing material at a reasonable cost. Al- though Blake, a nephew of Eli Whitney, was a pioneer in the laying of macadam roads in Connecticut, such roads in their rougher form were originally due to the experi- ments of John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836), who was born at Ayr, Scotland. McAdam first tried the method of using crushed stone for the purpose of hardening the surface of roads, even as he was the first to bring into the construction of stone roads broken stone applied in courses. His system, perfected about 1820, is used today throughout the entire civilized world, although the method by which the system has been put into operation
2 See Joseph W. Roe, Connecticut inventors (no. XXXIII in this series), pp. 22-23.
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has seen many changes since McAdam's day. In his time there were neither stone-crushers wherewith to reduce the stone to the required dimensions nor screens to grade the broken stone. No appliance had been invented to save the dust; there were no steam rollers or other mechanical appliances, such as are used today, for the economical application of the stone. The rough, unfinished stone was left to the kind offices of the passing carts or wagons for whatever refinement or leveling they might afford.
The road which Blake laid in 1851 on Whalley Avenue between New Haven and Westville was, perforce, con- structed after the rather primitive methods of McAdam. Taking into consideration the difficulties under which this type of road was then made, it is not hard to believe Blake's statement that in 1851 there were hardly a dozen miles of macadam roads in all New England. With Blake's invention of the stone-crusher in 1858, the theory of McAdam as to the prime utility of stone roads be- came an important practicality.
In order to stem the rapid deterioration of gravel and macadam roads, bituminous surfaces were developed to prevent the breaking up and blowing away of the small particles of bonding material, as a result of the suction of fast-moving motor traffic. The fact that many roads built by the department in its early years are still in use, without having been rebuilt, speaks well for the thought and care given to those earlier road projects.
The first purpose of the highway department was to provide highways which would give the country districts arteries of communication which might be used at all seasons of the year, not only for the movement of produce but also for the development of the state's natural re- sources. While these macadam and gravel-surfaced roads were adequate to meet the economic conditions of the
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time and the territory they served, the gradual linking of isolated sections and the more general use of automobiles tended to create an ever-increasing demand for more and better highways.
One of the first horseless carriages operated in Con- necticut was designed by E. P. Clapp of New Haven about 1896, so that the rise of automobile traffic paralleled and coincided with the growth of the highway depart- ment. The automobile designed by Clapp was made by Hoggson and Pettis of New Haven and tried out in the streets under the care of Frank D. Willys, employed by that firm. Willys said:
We went up on East Rock to prove the auto's climbing power in which it was all that could have been expected. Then we drove to Milford. All went well except that as we had no muffler we could be heard for miles away. Of course there were some horse drivers who could not get out of the way fast enough, and some unattended horses that had to be dealt with. I frequently had to get out and hold them until our wonderful car got out of the way. There is one thing I must not forget to state-we stopped for some gas on Elm Street just opposite the Yale Gym; and how much do you suppose we paid for it? Six cents a gallon and there was no tax either. And besides all this we had oil given us.
With the advent of the automobile and the increased mileage of improved highways, still another factor ob- truded itself upon the attention of the highway engineer; namely, the motor truck. In order to provide for the heavy loads consequent upon the increased use of the motor truck, it became necessary to utilize much heavier types of construction for both the subbase and the metal surface of the pavement. This at first consisted of a heavier base on which was laid waterbound macadam or gravel, as the case might be. With the advance in scientific
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knowledge came the use of various so-called improved macadam or asphalt-composition roads. Practically all these types of roads were open to the objection that they were more or less easily broken up and impaired by heavy travel, by frost, and by other weather conditions, so in 1913 the department began the experiment of what are popularly known as cement roads. All these various kinds of roads are at present constructed and maintained by the department, the choice being determined by the nature and the volume of traffic which it is expected the road will serve.
While the types of construction in use on the highways have proved more or less satisfactory so far as the heavily loaded vehicles of today are concerned, the bridges of yesteryear are being relegated to the realm of the obso- lete, and the rebuilding of many bridges that might otherwise have served a useful purpose has been necessi- tated. The great increase in traffic has made necessary not only the rebuilding of bridges but also the widening of many highways to accommodate in some sections over forty thousand vehicles a day.
IV
THE history of the bridges of Connecticut is not less interesting than that of its highways. In colonial days both were of necessity primitive. Wood was very plenti- ful throughout the land and it was only natural that the colonists should resort to it as material for bridge con- struction. If a small stream was to be crossed, large trees were felled and hewn on two sides and placed on dry masonry abutments. The trees so placed formed the beams and were at first covered with straight limbs and later with planks. If the stream was large, stone or timber piers were built and timbers laid from pier to pier.
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Stories of the builders of the old covered wooden bridges areamong themostinterestingof engineering. Those bridges were not designed by any theoretical analysis but by rule of thumb. Experience and sound judgment were the main factors in their construction. Most members were constructed of hewn timbers. The craftsmanship was as nearly perfect as could be desired. The framing and joining were as accurately done as if it had been cabinet work, and allowances were made for the shrinkage of the timber and for other woodworking problems.
Theodore Burr, Lewis Wernwag, Thomas Pope, and Ithiel Town were the most prominent earlier bridge builders in America. Ithiel Town (1784-1844), a native of Thompson, Connecticut, patented the latticed truss- the first truss essentially American. It was all wooden construction with multiple, diagonally intersecting web- bing that consisted of a multitude of light members. It has been the prototype of many truss forms, both timber and metal. It soon became very popular and many bridges were constructed from Town's plans, the greatest span length attained being two hundred and twenty feet. Town was a very conservative bridge builder and in order to assure himself that the long-span bridges would carry the loads safely, he built a scale model fifty feet long and made loading tests upon the model, thereby developing a method of proportioning the timbers to the length and load of the span.
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