USA > New York > Queens County > Long Island City > History of Long Island City, New York. A record of its early settlement and corporate progress. Sketches of the villages that were absorbed in the growth of the present municipality. Its business, finance, manufactures, and form of government, with some notice of the men who built the city > Part 10
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In 1867 the South Side Railroad was opened for business between South Eighth street, Brooklyn, E. D., and Babylon. Soon after it was extended to Patchogue, thence to Eastport, and in 1882 to Sag Harbor. Thus two lines of railways were in active operation over the whole length of Long Island in fifty years from the time of the laying of the first rail.
In 1874 the Stewart extension to Garden City ran its trains from the station of the Flushing Rail- road at Hunter's Point.
Finally, in 1881, the Long Island Railroad with all its leased lines was purchased by the interests represented by the late Austin Corbin, under whom the road, as a system, reached its present stage of development. Previous to this purchase, Mr. Corbin had built a railroad from Greenpoint to Manhattan Beach, connection being made with New York by steamboats. This move displayed his wonderful
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sagacity and foresight, for the whole of the Atlantic coast has not a more delightful spot for summer recreation than this famous resort. Mr. Corbin's own explanation of the transaction whereby the Long Island Railroad passed under his control, exhibited his breadth of view, comprehensive grasp of the varied bearings of his action and confidence in the future as he saw it. "Representing a body of cap- italists, I have purchased from Drexel, Morgan & Co. an interest that gives me control of all the Long Island Railroads, except two or three local lines running to Coney Island. This is not a new idea. I have been negotiating for the road several months. I have always believed in Long Island-in its advantages as a place of residence, in its agricultural productiveness, in the attractiveness of its summer resorts and its value for railroad purposes. My faith in this direction has, perhaps, been stronger than that of almost any other man who pretended to have any understanding on the subject. All the Island needs is development, and now that development is going to take place. It is almost too early to go into details, but I will outline in a general way my plans. One object that we have in view is to develop to the fullest extent the farming sections of the Island. We shall use every effort to this end. I propose to make the south side of Long Island the greatest watering place in the world. Its natural beauties and advantages are so great that the improvement of the whole stretch of coast is as certain to come as the world is to stand. It is a beautiful country, that Long Island shore. I have lived there eight years and I know whereof I speak, when I say that the climate, scenery and natural attractions are unsur- passed in any part of this country or Europe. I have not a particle of doubt that within ten years (he was speaking December, 1880-the railroad was to change hands January 1, 1881) the south side, from Coney Island to Montauk Point, will be bordered by a continuous chain of seaside summer resorts. It is not, however, entirely because of my faith in Long Island as a place of summer residence that I take the interest in it which I do. With proper accommodations for travel it will be an advantageous place of abode, both in summer and in winter."
By the successive movements given in our narrative, Long Island City became the capital city of the Long Island Railroad. Its offices are here. From this point its traffic and travel are distributed throughout the Island. To this point it conveys inhabitants from every part of the Island and trans- ports them to New York over its RAVENSWOOD BRIDGE. abundantly equipped ferries. Hundred of trains go and come daily, for the accommodation of which its extensive yards, reaching from the river to and beyond Vernon avenue, afford none too large a space. Should the great project of Mr. Corbin, with respect to the estab- lishment of an international line of steamers between Fort Pond Bay and Milford Haven, Wales, receive Congressional sanction under future agitation, the advantages accruing to this city and Long Island in general would be incalcuable.
THE NEW YORK AND EAST RIVER FERRY COMPANY.
This well-known ferry provides transportation between Astoria and Ninety-second street, New York. Like other organizations identified with the city, and like the city itself, it is a development from a humbler original. Not again to recur to the period when a solitary oarsman piloted an occasional passenger against the river, made ever perilous by turbulent tides, the early sixties will provide a starting point adapted to our purpose.
Astoria was then a prosperous village. On the opposite shore stood the Astor Mansion, which now is used as a pavilion for the Park at Horn's Hook. Population was then beginning to drift along the avenues of uptown New York sufficiently to justify the provision of facilities for ferriage to and from Long Island. Accordingly, in 1864, the Queens County Ferry was organized by charter with A. W. Winans, as President, and Cornelius Rapelye and Samuel Willets (of Flushing), as Directors. Two boats, the Sunswick and Astoria, were placed in service and daily plied the waters of the river. Though they had but one gangway, yet their accommodations were ample for the limited demands of the traffic. The fare was four cents to Eighty-sixth street, New York, which was then the ferry terminal, but the travel was so restricted, that the receipt of $50 a day was an unusual circumstance. In 1868 the
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terminus was changed to Ninety-second street, New York, where the company was able to procure a landing more eligible in every respect for the purposes of ferriage.
In 1880 the Astoria Ferry Company was organized and assumed control of the business with Cor- nelius Rapelye as President and John S. Ellis as General Manager. The fare was raised to five cents though the new company employed but two boats, both of them old, which made their trips under headway of half an hour. Captain Richard Brown, who is still daily at the wheel, alert and cool headed, with the experience and vigor of middle life, then had just entered the service. "Travel was very slight in those days" he remarked to the writer. "Twenty passengers was a big load. Trip after trip was made with not a single soul on board save the crew."
Another change in the administration of affairs came with 1892. On October I, of that year, the New York and East River Ferry Company acquired by purchase all the rights and property of the Astoria Company, and were organized under a new charter. The officers of this company are, William A. Nash, President, (who is also President of the Corn Exchange Bank of New York); Roswell Eldridge, Secretary and Treasurer; R. U. Clark, Cashier; John Harvey, General Superintendent, and Joseph Johnson, Assistant Superintendent. The Board of Directors consists of William A. Nash, Roswell Eldridge, H. K. Knapp, Theodore F. Jackson, and Emanuel Lehman. Under the present management important advance has been made in matters which relate to public accommodation. The waiting rooms and general entrances have been improved; the racks in the ferry slips have been extended; the schedule time has been reduced from fifteen minutes to twelve minutes headway; three boats instead of two are in constant service and all rates of transportation have been reduced, the greatest reduction being on vehicles. In the spring of 1896, Rhinelander's reef, which stretched across the front of the ferry on the New York side, and was a constant menance to the busy boats of the company, was removed, affording a depth at low water of ten feet instead of five and a half feet as theretofore .. A large increase of business is a marked result of these efforts to respond to public demands which is the policy of the present management. An average of 300 passengers per trip now cross this ferry morning and evening. Several eauses have contributed to this growth of patronage. The Harlem steamers which formerly conveyed passengers from Astoria to Peck Slip, N. Y., having been taken from the route, the volume of travel was diverted to the elevated railroads, one of the stations of which is located conveniently to the ferry. The general produce market, at One Hundredth street, attracts large numbers of market gardeners from Long Island. The stone yards, also, which extend from Hallett's point along the shore front of this city to Ravenswood, give rise to a large traffic which places the ferry service in important demand. Added to all these is the great tide of travel, which, in its season, flows to and from North Beach and populates the boats of this company till their capacity is often taxed.
It is noteworthy that during the history of the three companies which successively have operated the ferry from Hallett's Point, not an accident of a momentous nature, save one, has occurred. Mr. Alfred A. McCoy, whose period of continuous service as ferrymaster covers more than, thirty-one years and who is still at his post, recalls the sinking of the Astoria, in 1867, in a collision with the Electra- a large Fall River freight steamer. When it is considered that navigation across the river at this point is more difficult than at any other on the East or North Rivers, made so by the swirling eddies, mad rushing tides and perilous rocks of Hell Gate, this record is ereditable alike to the trusty pilots and to the company which is careful to employ none other.
THE RAVENSWOOD BRIDGE.
The plan of throwing a suspension bridge across the East River with abutting piers on Blackwell's Island, dates back as far as 1838. In the Family Magasine, Vol. V., of that year, the " Grave's plan for an iron hanging-bridge over the east and west channels of the East River, from between Sixty-fifth and Seventy-fifth streets on the City of New York side, across the northern part of Blackwell's Island to a feasible point on Long Island opposite " is circumstantially set forth. "It has been thought," said the writer, " by many, that one of the greatest obstacles to the rapid and permanent growth of the City of New York, existed in the fact that there is at present no certain and rapid mode of communication with the adjoining country. To be sure the different ferries by which the inhabitants of this splendid city are able, in the spring and summer months, to enjoy the society of their neighbors, might at first view seem to render that objection futile, but when we consider the great expense of ferriage, and the uncertainty of the length of passage in the winter season, when the rivers are frequently obstructed
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with ice, it will be apparent to every one that if bridges could be thrown over the North and East Rivers, they would certainly be a publie benefit, and contribute very much to the prosperity and com- fort of the people." The bridge, as planned in that early day, showed an excellent degree of intelligent engineering details. The architect reasoned thus: "The distance from point to point on a feasible line of construction may be stated as follows: From New York to Blackwell's Island, six hundred and ten feet; and from Blackwell's Island to Long Island, six hundred and eighty-three feet, making a total distance of two thousand one hundred and eight feet. The bridge to have three openings of seven hundred feet each between the points of suspension, with abutments of arched masonry on either side of the channels, and spanning Blackwell's Island with three connecting arches. Height of road bed above high water, one hundred and twenty feet; to spring of side arches, ninety feet; from road bed to sum- mit of suspending piers, fifty-eight feet; span of smaller arches, one hundred and fifty feet; center arch, two hundred and fifty feet, with corresponding spring; each of main piers to be sixty feet wide at high-water level, sloping upward in proportion. The breath of the bridge, forty-five feet, with (at cach opening) ten ribs of twenty pieces each, connected by a eross-grated plate, and cross braces, the whole further secured by two horizontal diagonal cables, connected at the center point of crossing and at the piers. The roadway passes through arched openings in the suspension piers, to have two carriage tracks with a foot-path intervening; suspended from four catenarian lines of maleable iron chains and cables (of four cables each), by perpendicular lines of iron rods alternating from the four suspension cables spreading five feet apart horizontally with each side of the roadway, framed of iron lattice, left deep and similarly latticed below the road-bed. The suspension cables of each opening are firmly secured in masses of masonry resting near the points of construction." This "hanging-bridge" as determined
CITY OF NEW YORK.
BLACKWELLS ISLAND.
RAVENSWOOD, L. I.
WORKS OF
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from experiments, "would have a surplus of upward of twelve hundred tons remaining, denoting the strength of the bridge, a weight that beyond probability would never be upon the bridge'at one point of time."
The expense of constructing this bridge would vary, it was thought, "from five hundred to eight hundred thousand dollars."
The "few years" in which the writer hoped "to have the pleasure of walking over this bridge" have multiplied into nearly two generations. Though its construction was never attempted, yet the idea was an expression of a commercial want then beginning to be felt, and the plans contained germinal suggestions from which those of a later day have not been widely different.
The next historical development of the proposition to span the East River, at or near the point mentioned twenty-nine years before, was on the 16th of April, 1867, when the Legislature of New York granted a charter to the "New York and Long Island Bridge Company." Thirty members constituted the corporation, chief among whom were Isaae D. Coleman, the engineer, and Archibald M. Bliss, the first Secretary.
This company was the direct product of the disapproval on the part of many engineers and business men of the location of the Brooklyn Bridge. The construction of that bridge had just been authorized. It was then argued and foreseen (and subsequent years have verified the views then expressed) that the Brooklyn Bridge, while serving perhaps as a means of local rapid transit, could never, by reason of its location, be made a part of any system of through transportation between Long Island and other parts of the nation. To connect Long Island with the mainland, the western center of
1
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
the Island should be brought into immediate communication with the center of New York City. To thinking men all the conditions seemed favorable to this idea. The lands of Long Island leading to such a location were advantageously open, piers could be built upon rock at or near the surface of the river. The river itself was here at its narrowest point. The thoroughfares of uptown New York near Seventieth street offered less traffic obstruction. The chief railroad connections were gravitating toward the upper districts of the city. Furthermore, the question of cost was reduced to a minimum at the contemplated locality.
Moved by such considerations, the location of Seventy-seventh street, New York, was selected after the most skillful survey as the most strategie point at which a paying bridge could be constructed. The energies of the Company were exerted for the realization of the enterprise. The route was selected, lands surveyed and necessary legal steps taken to seeure possession of the desired property. But for reasons relating to popular misapprehension, which interpreted the scheme as of a purely publie char- acter thereby prejudieing private sub- seriptions to the stock and to eanses of a political nature, the project lapsed.
In 1871 an attempt was again made by the organization of the "New York and Queens County Bridge Company," which was char- tered by the Legislature, but no 48" PIPE important measures were taken to advance the enterprise and the move- ment ended in failure. Among the incorporators, however, was Col. R. . M. C. Graham, who became instru- mental in thoroughly reorganizing the New York and Long Island Bridge Company and placing it upon a work- 36" PIPE ing commercial basis. The practical 36" PIPE co-operation was secured of William Steinway, John T. Conover, HI. C. NVB Poppenheusen, Archibald . M. Bliss, HOLE (). Zollikoffer, Edward J. Woolsey, Gotlob Gunther, Pliny Freeman, Oswald Ottendorfer, Abram D. Dit- mars, Charles A. Trowbridge, Willy Wallach, Herman Funcke, C. Godfrey Gunther, Edward Einstein, Charles F. Tretbar, Henry G. Schmidt, John EAST RIVER TUNNEL, CROSS SECTION OF HEADING THROUGHI ROCKS. C. Jackson and Charles 11. Rogers. The board of directors, consisting of twenty-one members, was authorized by an amended charter to extend the time for beginning operations to June 1, 1879. The panie of 1873 and the important industrial depression which ensued, temporarily embarrassed the employment of means to carry out the plans of the Company, but toward the end of 1874, General J. G. Barnard, General Quincy A. Gilmore and Oliver Chanute, were appointed a commission of engineers to devise preliminary measures for active and actual work. In order to secure the best engineering skill of the country, the commission advertised for plans, offering $1000, $500 and $300 in prizes. During the following three years various plans were submitted, some of acknowledged merit, but none of the desired superiority requisite for adoption. However, the first prize was awarded to Mr. MeDonald, the second to Captain Eads and the third to Mr. Flaad. The only objection was on the part of Dr. Thomas Rainey, who had been elected to the board in 1876. He contended in favor of a cable instead of a cantilever bridge. Here the whole matter seems to have ended save, perhaps, the report of a survey which confirmed that made by Mr. Coleman under the old company.
During this time William Steinway had presided over the deliberations of the Board. Voluntarily retiring in 1877, he was succeeded by Dr. Rainey, who enthusiastically espoused the interests of the
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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND CITY.
Company, and set about the employment of means for their promotion. He intereeded with Vander- bilt, Drexel, Morgan & Co., and parties connected with the Manhattan Elevated Railroads of New York, but without avail. The merits of the enterprise were everywhere acknowledged, but capital was obligated in other directions and could not be devoted to this. With the bridge building firm of Clarke, Reeves & Co., of Phoenixville, Pa., he was more successful, however. To them he submitted pro- posed plans, during the examination of which a better plan suggested itself which was deemed superior to all others, and was adopted. Dr. Rainey relinquished his official position in order to further ex- pedite matters and Charles A. Trowbridge was elected to the presidency. A contract was made with Clarke, Reeves & Co., March 25, 1881, for right of way and the construction of a "first-class double track railway, carriage and walkway iron bridge." In accordance with the terms of the contract, work was begun the following day upon a pier at Ravenswood. Stock was pledged to the amount of $1,600,000. The estimate cost of the structure was $6,000, 000, and the revenues therefrom $2,000 per day. There were to be two spans of 734 feet and 618 feet respectively, with a minimum height above mean tide of 150 feet. The erection of this great structure was confidently anticipated. But with the completion of a coffer dam in the East River, its history ceased and the well planned project became a dead letter.
The vital importance of commercial connection with New York by means that would admit of through transportation continued to engage the attention of capitalists. Austin Corbin, upon his accession to the chief executive office of the Long Island Railroad, did not permit the matter to slumber. In the great and feasible project whereby he contemplated the erection of Fort Pond Bay into a free port of entry and continuous transportation throughout the length of Long Island, thence to the mainland to connect with the great trunk lines of the continent, the extension of the Long Island Railroad to Man- hattan Island was an indispensable condition. The New York and Long Island Railroad Company pro- posed to bore a tunnel under the East River to achieve that end. A shaft nearly one hundred feet in depth was sunk in the triangle bounded by Jackson and, Vernon avenues and Fourth street, and prep- arations were made to begin operations upon the tunnel proper, when all the rights, titles and immu- nities of the New York and Long Island Bridge Company were transferred to and passed under the direc- tion of the Board of which Mr. Corbin was the head. The tunnel project having been relinquished, work was again begun upon a bridge across the East River from Sixty-fourth Street, New York, to llarsell Avenue, Long Island City. Owing to litigation, operations were suspended in October, 1895, but were resumed in the month of March following, only again to be discontinued.
Thus for fifty-eight years the attempt of man to form this artificial bond of immediate connection with the mainland has ended in failure. But it cannot be doubted that the economic value accruing from so great and practicable an enterprise cannot much longer defer the day of its construction. The far reaching results of the consolidation of Western Long Island into the Greater New York will impe- riously so demand.
THE TUNNEL OF THE EAST RIVER GAS COMPANY. -
By legislative act of 1892 the East River Gas Company was authorized to supply the City of New York with gas through a tunnel to be constructed under the East River. The magnitude of the under- taking awakened the doubts of the incredulous and many idle prophecies concerning the failure of the scheme. But the possibilities of the undertaking had previously been thoroughly canvassed by the best engineering skill of the day. Charles M. Jacobs, Civil Engineer of London, England, and of New York, was placed in direction of the work. Mr. Jacobs had been engaged in similar work in England and Australia and more recently had planned a scheme for Mr. Austin Corbin, for underground rapid transit in New York.
The first work was to determine the depth at which to cross. This was accomplished by a system of borings and soundings across the channels and Blackwell's Island. Messrs. MeLaughlin and Reilly having successfully bid for the work of excavation, plants were established on both sides of the river and operations upon the shafts were commenced, June 28, 1892. The shafts were nine feet square, with a depth on the New York side of 135 feet, and on the Ravenswood side of 147 feet. The distance between the center line of the shafts was fixed at 2541.4 feet, thus giving a drainage of six inches to the 100 feet toward the Ravenswood end where there is a sump for the same and facilities for pump- ing drainage to the surface. The heading is ten feet wide by eight feet six inches high at the center
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of the erown. This crown is struck by a radius of seven feet and joins the perpendicular sides with fillets of two feet radius.
The work progressed smoothly. The shafts were completed and the headings turned at both sides. The rock on the New York side was found to be dry as bone. At Ravenswood many springs were met. Great skill was required to project the lines, what with drilling and firing and removal of debris from the shafts. In 1893 about 350 feet had been run under the west channel by reason of the dry rock which was favorable to progress, while on the east side only 285 feet had been bored. By reason of difference of views as to the employment of compressed air in the work of further excavation, the contractors relinquished the work and Mr. W. I. Aims, an experienced engineer at the Hudson River tunnel, was placed in charge. As the work advanced, brick masonry at first, then cast iron lining was used, wherever soft material so required. Meantime soft rock was also encountered upon the Ravenswood side which necessitated the use of compressed air. The work was done by a shield, which was a steel cylinder of sufficient internal diameter to contain the iron lining. To operate it sufficient pressure was applied to force it forward. It was possible to bring 600 tons to bear upon it. The pressure necessary for accomplishing the work was about thirty pounds. Though men were carefully examined before allowed to work under these strained conditions, some were overcome while others were more or less affected by continuance. The danger to those unaccustomed to the pressure was greater on emerging from the lock from the reduction of pressure, than upon entering. The effect was the same as experienced in high altitudes where the heart is stimulated to extraordinary action.
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