A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 49

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

USA > New York > A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 49

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On the 30th day of December, 1880, an- other great change in the affairs of the rail- roads on Long Island was consummated. On that day, Receiver Sharp was discharged, and Austin Corbin was substituted as re- ceiver in place of Mr. Sharp. This change- was the result of a purchase by Austin Cor- bin and his associates of a large majority of the stock of the Long Island Railroad, and other securities connected with the railroad system. Mr. Corbin* ran the road

*Austin Corbin, whose best and and most enduring memorial in the Long Island Railroad, was one of the most noted capitalists of his time, and his career was from first to last truly an American one, -one that could not be paralleled in any other country in the world. This was conspicuous especially in his later years, when he strove to utilize his means and brains and influence to promote what was really a magnificent series of projects for the public benefit. In most other countries a man who had successfully engaged in the battle of life would have retired to enjoy himself "under his own vine and fig tree;" but almost until the close of his career Mr. Corbin was interested in improving matters around him, in using his resources in benefiting the public, and while he never posed as a philanthropist, expected a fair return for all the capital he employed, and engaged in business on business principles, all he did was with a view of placing some benefit within reach, and at the service, of the people. Even his management of his private property, his summer home, had this end in view. Mr. Corbin was born at Newport, N. H., July 11. 1827. He studied law at Harvard and when he was graduated, in 1849, returned to his native town and began to practice. He soon found it too slow, however, and he determined to try his fortune in the west. In 1852 he settled in Davenport, Iowa, where he organized what is now the First National Bank, and remained there until 1866, when he came to New York and fully entered upon that career as a banker and financier which long before he passed away made his name famous throughout the country, and indeed throughout the whole financial world. He established the Corbin Banking Company in 1873 and entered upon his remarkable series of exploits as a railroad financier by the reorganization of the Indiana, Bloomington & Western Railroad. His connection with the Long Island Railroad is fully told in the body of this work and need not be repeated here. He was also at one- time receiver of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and became its president, and he was president of the New York and New England Railroad Company, and of the Elmira, Cortland & Northern Railroad Company, and a director in a host of financial institutions of every description.

He died, the result of an accident, June 4, 1896.

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as receiver until the 15th day of October, 1881, when he was directed by an order of the Supreme Court to restore the property of the Long Island Railroad Company to the control of its directors. Mr. Corbin infused into the management of ine Long Island Railroad a new spirit of energy. He inaug- urated many and great reforms, that placed the system of railroads on the island on a much higher plane of efficiency than they had ever before enjoyed. The most import- ant enterprise entered upon in Mr. Corbin's administration was undertaken the first sum- mer after he had been appointed receiver, and had also been elected President of the Board of Directors of the Long Island Rail- road Corporation. By the co-operation of the Brooklyn & Montauk Railroad Company, that corporation, under its corporate powers, extended the road from Patchogue to East- port on the Sag Harbor Branch of the Long Island Railroad, forming a junction there with that branch line, and thus was inaug- urated a through line of railroad from Sag Harbor along the south side of the island as far as Springfield, running thence to Jamaica, and uniting with the main line of the Long Island Railroad that point. This was the only piece of railroad construction inaugur- ated by Mr. Corbin for several years, but the general characteristics of the road and its rolling stock were radically changed under his vigorous administration.

In 1881 the mortgage on the Central Ex- tension Railroad was foreclosed. This was the road built from Farmingdale to Babylon, before referred to. On this foreclosure the title was taken in the name of Benjamin S. Henning, who subsequently on the 9th day of February, 1882, conveyed the same to the Long Island Railroad Company. Thus the . Long Island Railroad Company became en- titled to that branch of railroad.

In 1880 a foreclosure had been consumi- mated of a mortgage on the Flushing & North Side Railroad, and on the sale title to that property was taken by Egisto P. Fabbri and Charles Knoblauch. In March, 1881. Fabbri and Knoblauch filed a certificate or- ganizing the Long Island City & Flushing Railroad Company, and on the first day of April, 1881, Fabbri and Knoblauch conveyed to that corporation the property they had acquired on the foreclosure proceedings. By this conveyance the Long Island City & Flushing Railroad Company became entitled

to a line of railroad from Long Island City to Main street, in the village of Flushing, and also the line of road from the junction near the drawbridge over Flushing Creek, running thence to Whitestone. By this deed, and by virtue of the former consolidation of the Flushing & Woodside Railroad, the new corporation became vested of all there was remaining of value in the Flushing & Wood- side Railroad. It consisted chiefly of the franchise to cross Flushing Creek near the Bridge street station in the village of Flush- ing. The road heretofore spoken of as the North Shore Railroad, extending from Main street, in the village of Flushing, was thus severed from any legal connection with any corporation, but in fact was an outlying branch, which was subsequently acquired, as will be now explained. In 1882 a mortgage upon this North Shore Railroad, running from Flushing to Great Neck, was fore- closed, and on the sale title was taken in the name of Austin Corbin and J. Rogers Max- well. On the 2d day of October, 1884, Cor- bin and Maxwell conveyed this piece of road to the Long Island City & Flushing Railroad Company, and thus for the first time the fee of this road became vested in the corpora- tion that owned the title to the line from Flushing to Long Island City.

During the year 1886 a mortgage on the Whitestone & Westchester Road was fore- closed, and the property sold to John R. Maxwell and Henry Graves. On the 28th day of April, 1887, Maxwell and Graves con1- veyed this property to the Long Island City & Flushing Railroad Company, and thus the latter company became entitled to the railroad to the water's edge in the village of White- stone.

No attempt was made by the owners of the North Side system of railroads, that had become legally severed from the control of the Long Island Railroad Company, nor by the owners of the South Side system of rail- roads, that had also become severed from the Long Island Railroad Company, to operate them as independent properties, but they were operated for a few years under leases made with each of the new organizations by the Long Island Railroad Company.

On the 30th day of September, 1889, a certificate was filed in the office of the Sec- retary of State of New York, that the whole capital stock of the Brooklyn & Montauk Rail- road Company had been surrendered or trans-

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ferred to the Long Island Railroad Company. By this certificate of surrender under the statute the property and franchises of the Brooklyn & Montauk Railroad Company be- came merged in and consolidated with the Long Island Railroad Company, and thus the Long Island Railroad Company acquired title to all those roads that had been merged into the Brooklyn & Montauk Railroad Com- pany. On the 2d of April, 1889, a certificate was filed in the office of the Secretary of State, certifying that the entire capital stock of the Long Island City & Flushing Railroad Company had been surrendered or transferred to the Long Island Railroad Company. The effect of this was to merge and consolidate the line of road from Long Island City io Great Neck, via Flushing, together with the branch from College Point to Whitestone, in the Long Island Railroad Company.

In April, 1891, a certificate was filed in the office of the Secretary of State, that the entire capital stock of the New York & Flush- ing Railroad Company had been surrendered and transferred to the Long Island Railroad Company, thus effecting a legal union be- tween the Long Island Railroad Company and the remnant of the old New York & Flushing Railroad, which was being utilized in the system. That part of the New York & Flushing Railroad lying between Winfield, and the junction of the South Side Railroad had been abandoned for many years, and still remains an abandoned line.

It will be remembered that the Stewart line, so-called, running across Hempstead Plains, had never been acquired in fee, but up to 1892 had been run as a leased line. On June 1, 1892, the heirs of A. T. Stewart con- veyed the fee of that line to the Long Island Railroad Company. The line conveyed by this deed extended from the junction of that road with the main line at Floral Park east- wardly to Farmingdale and Bethpage, to- gether with the branch from Garden City to Hempstead. By the operation of this deed, the Long Island Railroad Company became vested with the title and property of this piece of railroad.

The history of all of the railroad property owned by the Long Island Railroad Com- pany in its own right is now complete. There are other railroads on Long Island operated by the Long Island Railroad Company that will need further consideration and explana- tion, but at this stage it will facilitate an un-

derstanding if we stop and look at the prop- erty of the Long Island Railroad corporation standing in its own name, regardless of the attached leased lines. We will now recapitulate the lines owned by this company, disregarding all old names and treating the present prop- erty as a unit as it is in fact :

A line from Long Island City via Win- field, Jamaica and Farmingdale, to Green- port.

A branch from Mineola to Locust Valley. A branch from Hicksville to Northport.

A branch from Manorville to Eastport.

A branch from Mineola to Hempstead.

A branch from Floral Park to Creed- moor.

A branch from Floral Park, via Garden City, to Babylon.

A branch from Bethpage Junction to Bethpage.

A line from Long Island City, via Fresh Pond, Jamaica and Babylon, to Sag Harbor.

A branch from Fresh Pond to Bushwick.

A branch from Valley Stream to Rock- away Beach.

A line from Long Island City to Great Neck.

A branch from Flushing to Whitestone Landing.

Such are the lines and branches owned by the present Long Island Railroad Com- pany. That part of the Southern division owned by the Long Island Railroad Con- pany is the old line from Jamaica to Spring- field, not now much used. The principal trains pass eastward to Rockaway Junction, and thence to Springfield Junction. This piece of road of the New York & Rockaway Railroad between the two junctions is oper- ated under lease from the New York and Rockaway Railroad Company. The balance of the New York and Rockaway Railroad from Springfield Junction to Far Rockaway was abandoned many years ago.

There are a number of leased lines now operated by the parent company of more or less importance. By far the most important one is the line from Jamaica to Flatbush ave- nue in the city of Brooklyn. We have not un- dertaken to give the history of the old Brook- lyn & Jamaica Railroad. For the purposes of this history it is sufficient to say that through foreclosures and reorganizations the property of that corporation finally vested in the Atlan- tic Avenue Railroad Company. A part of the road between East New York and the ferry

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

was for many years run as a street railroad, and the part between Jamaica and East New York was run for about ten years as a leased line of the Long Island Railroad Company. In 1876 the Legislature, in response to the then urgent demands of the authorities and citizens of Brooklyn, passed an act restoring the use of steam power in Atlantic avenue, in the city of Brooklyn, from Flatbush avenue to the city line. In pursuance of this authority, à new lease was effected in 1877 between the Long Island Railroad Company and the Atlantic Avenue Railroad Company, by which the former leased the line from Jamaica to Flat- bush avenue for ninety-nine years, upon a basis of a per cent. of the earnings being paid as rent. This percentage basis was on the 30th day of April, 1895, changed to a fixed rental. When the Brooklyn & Jamaica Railroad was first constructed, that corporation acquired a considerable tract of land in the village of Ja- maica, and erected a station and other terminal facilities there. The use of this land passed under the various leases to the Long Island Railroad Company, and in the construction of depots, side-tracks, yard facilities and other structures appurtenant to so large and import- ant a station and junction, the lands of the two corporations have been used in common, dis- regarding the property lines between the two corporations, so that at this day, without an actual survey, no one could determine in the tangle of tracks and structures at Jamaica on which company's land they are built. This is probably not a very material matter at this time, but it is a fact worth noting in the his- tory of the Long Island Railroad Company. Under the new lease, the track between Ja- maica and Flatbush avenue was relaid in the early summer of 1877, and on the first day of July in that year locomotives and cars began running between Flatbush avenue and Ja- maica. While this road is only a leased line of the Long Island Railroad Company, it is a very important factor to that corporation.

Another leased line of importance to the Long Island Railroad Company is that of the New York & Rockaway Railroad. This line was leased to the Long Island Railroad Com- pany in 1871 for a period of thirty years, and the lease on the same will expire in 1901.

In 1886 a railroad was organized under the name of the Oyster Bay Extension Railroad 'Company. The purpose of this organization was to extend the line of the Glen Cove branch, so-called, from Locust Valley to Oys-

ter Bay. This road was constructed by the Long Island Railroad Company, the latter cor- poration having subscribed for or secured the entire capital stock under the provisions of its charter, allowing it to subscribe for or pur- chase the stock of any connecting road on Long Island. The Long Island Railroad Com- pany guaranteed the bonds issued in the con- struction of that railroad, and has operated it since its construction as a leased line, without having executed any written lease, but have paid by the way of rental the interest on the bonds issued for its construction.

In 1870 another railroad was organized, en- titled the New York & Long Beach Railroad Company. This road was constructed from what was then known as Pearsall's Corners, now Lynbrook, to Long Beach, where a sum- mer hotel and numerous cottages were erected. In February, 1880, it was leased to the Long Island Railroad Company, under an agreement by which a per cent. of its earnings should be paid to the corporation. In the sequel it was found that this per cent. was not sufficient to meet the interest on the bonds issued for the construction of the road, and a mortgage to secure the bonds was subsequently foreclosed, which terminated the lease, and a new corpor- ation was organized. Since the reorganization of this road, it has sometimes been operated by the Long Island Railroad Company as a leased line, but much of the time it has been idle.

In July, 1892, the Long Island Railroad Company, North Shore Branch, was organized. The purpose of this branch was to extend the Smithtown & Port. Jefferson Railroad east- ward to Wading River. In September, 1892, the corporate rights and franchises of this cor- poration were merged and consolidated with the Smithtown & Port Jefferson Railroad Company, and the name adopted by this new organization was the Long Island Railroad Company, North Shore Branch. By this oper- ation the name of the Smithtown & Port Jef- ferson Railroad disappears from the map of Long Island, and the entire branch from Northport to Wading River is now the Long Island Railroad Company, North Shore Branch, and is now operated as a branch of the Long Island Railroad.

In 1892 a corporation was organized under the name and title of the New York Bav Ex- tension Railroad Company. The line of this road was to be from Garden City, in the town of Hempstead, to a point in the city of Brook- lyn (formerly the town of New Lots) in the

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county of Kings, at or near the intersection of the New Lots road with the tracks and right- of-way of the New York, Brooklyn & Man- hattan Beach Railway Company. This line, if constructed in its entirety, would cross the line of the Southern division at Valley Stream. It has been constructed from Garden City to Valley Stream, and is now operated as a leased line.

In 1893 the Montauk Extension Railroad Company was organized. The purpose of this organization was to build a road from Bridge- hampton to Fort Pond Bay, on Montauk Point. The road was subsequently constructed and is now operated by the Long Island Rail- road Company as a leased line.

In 1896 there was organized a railroad cor- poration called the Great Neck & Port Wash- ington Railroad Company, to construct an ex- tension of the North Shore division from Great Neck to Port Washington. This railroad is now in process of construction, and when com- pleted will undoubtedly prove a valuable feed- er to the Long Island Railroad system.

We have now given all of the lines on Long Island that attach themselves in any way to the main line east of the city of Brooklyn, but which have not been incorporated into the Long Island Railroad Company. There is an- other railroad, however, that holds an anomal- ous position connected with the Long Island Railroad Company, and yet not one of its leased lines. A short history of this enterprise will explain the position of that corporation. In 1879 the New York, Woodhaven & Rock- away Railroad Company was organized for the purpose of building a railroad from Hunter's Point (Long Island City) to Rockaway Beach, crossing the Brooklyn & Jamaica Railroad at Woodhaven, and thence across the Meadows to the beach. The project originally contem- plated an independent line to the East River, but the projectors of the scheme, encountering what to them were insurmountable obstacles in getting through Long Island City, entered into a contract with Thomas R. Sharp, as receiver for the Long Island Railroad Company, by which they commenced building at Glendale, and completed their road to Rockaway Beach. Their contract with the Long Island Railroad' Company gave them track privileges and ter- minal facilities in the Long Island Railroad depot in Long Island City. This road furnished its own equipment and operated its own trains under this contract, but, coming to financial embarrassment, its corporate property and

franchises were foreclosed and sold to Austin Corbin and others, who, on the 20th day of August, 1887, conveyed the property to a new corporation, called the New York & Rockaway Beach Railroad Company. By agreement be- tween the Long Island Railroad Company and this corporation, track privileges and terminal facilities were given it in the Long Island Railroad station in Long Island City, and also a sort of joint occupation and a readjustment of that part of the Long Island Railroad tracks between Far Rockaway and the western ter- minus of its property on Rockaway Beach was made between the two corporations. The business of this corporation, while apparently a branch line, has been conducted under these agreements separate and distinct from the Long Island Railroad Company.

There are other lines leased or controlled by the Long Island Railroad Company, run- ning to Coney Island, of which no attempt is made here to trace their history or status. The name of one is the New York, Brooklyn & Manhattan Beach Railway Company, and the other is the Prospect Park & Coney Island Railroad Company. These lines are operated chiefly for summer traffic to Coney Island, and form properly no part of the Long Island Rail- road system as such.

Soon after the death of Austin Corbin the Long Island Railroad Company was re-or- ganized and Mr. W. H. Baldwin, Jr., became President. Under him the road was worked to its fullest capacity ; its mileage was ex- tended until it controlled 415 miles and the entire road was put in splendid physical con- dition, with new rails, rolling stock and the like. The patronage of the road, under a liberal construction as to rates, steadily in- creased, the summer business at an especially gratifying rate; but the isolated condition of the system prevented a full measure of success being attained. For four months in each year the road had all the business it could attend to; for the remainder it had barely enough to pay expenses, although the winter schedule of trains compared with that of the summer was a sadly abbreviated one and running expenses were cut down to a minimum. It has become conceded in rail- road circles that only trunk lines, or lines

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

having trunk connections can be made to pay; but the Long Island road seemed so completely isolated that there appeared no possibility of effecting an improvement in that regard. Austin Corbin had tried the ex- periment of running a line to Boston, witlı the aid of ferryboats, and so bringing the Long Island road into touch with the rail- road system of the country; but the effort was a flat and pronounced failure. The pub- lic would not use the route and that settled it. A scheme was subsequently broached of having European steamers land passengers at Montauk Point, but that project never got beyond the stage of discussion. In fact all such schemes of expansion seemed doomed to disappointment until the announcement was made that the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany had acquired a controlling interest in the road and the exclusion bogey of over half a century disappeared as if by magic.

This move on the part of the Pennsyl- vania system was not made without thorough calculation, but it was not until the summer of 1901 that the schemes made possible by the acquisition of the road had sufficiently ad- vanced to be made public. Briefly put, these plans are based on the possession or control. first, of the present lines of the Long Island Railroad; second, on connections across the island at its western end with the New York Connecting Railroad, giving an outlet by means of three bridges across the East River over Ward's and Randall's Islands to the mainland, where connection will be made with the New York & New Haven Road and with the Harlem; third, on the tunnel from Hunt- er's Point to Manhattan at the neighborhood of Long Acre Square, and, finally, on the tunnel from the Battery in Manhattan to the present terminus of the Long Island Rail- road, at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, in

Brooklyn. The plans have two general ob- jectives. One is the development of freiglit and passenger traffic with the old city of New York and the extensive region on Long Isl- and, including the old city of Brooklyn and the Borough of Queens. The other relates to comparatively close connection between the Pennsylvania main lines from the West and the whole of New England. It is pro- posed to build a great central station for the entire system at East New York, and when the improvements are completed Brooklyn will be a station on a through trunk line having connections with the entire country.

The improvements thus outlined are to- cost in round figures $18,000,000. A begin- ning is to be made at once,-in fact the plans for the tunnel from Hunter's Point (Long Island City) to Long Acre Square were filed on June 22 in the office of the County Clerk of Queens. On Long Acre Square, Manhattan, the Long Island Railway is to. have a Union depot, and as the Pennsylvania Company at the present time is organizing a corporation to build a bridge across the Hud- son, a bridge that will connect with the sta- tion thus proposed, it is easy to see that changes are about to begin which will amount to a revolution.

Whatever the other results of that revolu- tion may be, Long Island is certain to be benefited. When the details thus outlined are completed the Long Island Railroad will be a link in a transcontinental route, and the project is so thorough that no part of the island will be left outside the benefits of the general scheme. It means an addition of thousands to the regular home-makers of the island, a vast increase in its trade, its manu- factures and its commerce generally and a thorough development of its magnificent sum- mer resorts.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 49

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188