USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume II > Part 41
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume II > Part 41
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From the day the Pennsylvania Railroad took over, the Long Island Rail Road property and equipment value has increased from $28,225,000 to more than $150,000,000. This figure does not include any part of the $115,000,000 the Pennsylvania spent in building the Pennsylvania Station and its vast tunnel system.
To convert the Long Island's equipment to steel cars, and make it the first all-steel car railroad in the country, the Pennsylvania spent for that alone approximately $15,000,000. To electrify 448 miles of tracks took $40,000,000.
The Long Island Rail Road today (1947) operates 967.5 miles of track over 370 miles of right-of-way, one third of which is electrified and the rest steam-operated.
The railroad daily operates 813 regular passenger trains in the Summer, 746 in the Winter and 33 regular freight trains.
Equipment consists of 1322 electric and 323 steam coaches; 124 steam, 52 electric and 3 Diesel locomotives.
The great investment in the Long Island Rail Road made by the Pennsylvania Railroad has contributed greatly toward the develop- ment of Long Island.
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Five times as many people live on Long Island today as in 1900. Assessed property values on Long Island now are nearly $7,500,000,000-many times greater than in 1900.
Yet, while the Pennsylvania's vision has been vindicated, the financial return to it has been infinitesimal. Only seven times in 46 years has the Long Island Rail Road paid a dividend. In recent years, up until World War II, there has been nothing but heavy yearly deficits.
First Electric Train to Hempstead, 1908
In the 18-year period between 1922 and 1940, the Long Island Rail Road's total tax bill rose 300 per cent, while property taxes, which constitute three-fourths of the railroad's annual tax bill, rose 120 per cent. In Nassau County alone, in this period, property taxes rose to the alarming extent of 501 per cent as a result of the intensi- fied development of that residential area, in which the railroad had played a principal part. It is significant to note that although the Long Island Rail Road's property investment between 1922 and 1940 increased 74 per cent, the railroad's property taxes in all four Long Island counties rose 120 per cent.
At the same time, Long Island Rail Road commutation fares stood still. The Long Island Rail Road is the only Class I railroad in the nation which depends upon passenger traffic for more than 50 per cent of its total revenue. In normal times, the Long Island Rail
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD 403
Road handles more than 70 per cent passenger traffic and less than 30 per cent freight traffic, although this ratio has been altered some- what by abnormal war conditions. Of all its passenger business, more than 70 per cent is commutation; yet until July, 1947, the Long Island Rail Road had no increase in its commutation fares since 1918, while other commuting railroads in the metropolitan area were granted increases ranging from 20 to 40 per cent since that time. On July 9, 1947, the Public Service Commission granted the Long Island a temporary 20 per cent increase in commutation fares pending the outcome of hearings on the railroad's request for increases amounting to 25 per cent.
The Long Island Rail Road is unique in several other ways. There is little industry on the eastern end of the Island to provide return loads, with the result that most freight cars which go out filled come back empty. While other railroads reap the benefits of carrying a freight load over thousands of miles, all Long Island freight business calls for a relatively short haul.
Most railroads depend upon freight for as much as 90 per cent of their revenue and carry on their passenger business, especially their commutation business, at little profit and very often at a loss. The Long Island, however, if it ever is to be on a permanently solvent or profitable basis, must make its passenger business pay. To do so, its fares must be adequate to cover the cost of the service provided with a margin for reasonable profit, as any private enter- prise deserves.
In addition to insufficient fares and burdensome property taxes. other factors have been responsible for the fact that the Long Island Rail Road never has made money except for the brief period between 1925 and 1932 and the recent war period, when the Long Island again showed a profit, due to war-swollen traffic resulting principally from restrictions on other forms of transportation.
Foremost is the destructive competition from subways, buses, private automobiles and trucks. No one could foresee in the early '20s, when extension of the subway system to the city line was advo- cated, that modern buses would become feeders, thereby extending the effective radius of the subway many miles beyond its terminus. A vivid example of the disastrous effect of this combination is the fact that the total number of passengers carried annually by the Long Island Rail Road dropped from a high of nearly 119,000,000 in 1929 to a low of 70,000,000 in 1938, after the extension of the city- owned subway to Jamaica. Bus feeder lines from Nassau had sprung up, tapping the large commuting area in the western half of that county as well as other parts of Queens.
In June, 1941, the J. G. White Engineering Corporation of New York was engaged to make an independent study of the Long Island Rail Road to determine why, since 1935, it had earned no net income. This study was completed in June, 1942. Said the White firm's report:
In over forty years of retrospect, it would seem the Long Island Rail Road actually has received much greater benefit from this association than has the Pennsylvania.
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While the Long Island Rail Road has undergone com- plete physical transformation, the principal beneficiaries, obviously, have been the people who live on the Island and those who use the Long Island Rail Road.
Without the assurance of public encouragement and the co-operation of the regulatory and taxing authorities in the practical form of drastic decrease or elimination of property taxes and substantial increase of commutation passenger fares, there is no inducement for the Pennsylvania to risk the loss of further capital in cash advances of many millions of dollars for needed improvements.
In connection with its petition to the Public Service Commission for increased fares in the early part of 1947, the Long Island Rail Road promised to undertake a broad program of improvements over a period of three years at a total cost of $17,656,000. This program, which was begun soon after the temporary increase of 20 per cent in commutation was granted, although this increase fell far short of producing the requested revenue, consisted of :
New substations and equipment for better train performance at a cost of $5,000,000.
New stations, shelters, platform extensions and rehabilitation, at a cost of $675,000.
Many improvements in present cars, including metal window sash and safety glass, insulation in roofs and sides of cars to keep out summer's heat and winter's cold; five air-circulating fans for each car, centralized door controls for quickly opening and closing doors, improved springs for smoother riding, porcelain hoppers, Velon seat coverings and new motor generator sets for smoother operation of electrical controls and unfailing headlights, at a total cost of $2,500,000.
One hundred fifty-five miles of new stone ballast, replacing cinders for cleaner, smoother rides, at a total cost of $2,331,000.
Fifty new double-deck cars, the equivalent of five 10-car trains, providing 6600 more seats, at a total cost of $7,150,000.
This program was in keeping with the Long Island Rail Road's promise to undertake far-reaching major improvements if granted the needed 25 per cent increase in commutation fares. Although the increase had not been granted in full, the work nevertheless was planned and pledged with faith that the justice of its request for the full increase would meet with final favorable action by the New York State Public Service Commission.
CHAPTER XLI Long Island Windmills of the 18th Century
MEADE C. DOBSON Managing Director, The Long Island Association
A T THE EASTERN end of Long Island from Shinnecock Hills to East Hampton, on Shelter Island and Gardiner's Island stand ancient landmarks, that are truly exclamation points on the countryside. For here are to be found 18th century windmills that ground grain for the settlers of 175 and more years ago. One of them, at East Hampton, even now grinds away in fair winds.
Eleven Long Island windmills are more or less intact, several with workable machinery that can be set in motion within a few days of preparation. Others are used for living purposes, adjuncts of, or attached to summer homes. Nowhere else in America are there as many of these pioneer mills still sturdily standing. Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Nantucket and Rhode Island together have not as many.
The history of these mills is fascinating. From the old records of builders, millers' toll books, and other data in the Pennypacker Long Island Collection at the East Hampton Free Library, and from traditions may be woven tales of human interest, revealing the times and conditions of early days. And character, too! Hundreds of visitors to eastern Long Island ask many questions about them from local historians and of The Long Island Association, which has com- piled much windmill data as a result of innumerable inquiries.
East Hampton may be termed appropriately the "windmill vil- lage" for here are three of the mills-the Hook Mill (1796) on the green between Montauk Highway and the Three Mile Harbor Road. operating now and then to provide corn meal packages for visitors: the Pantigo Mill (1801), installed after two removals behind "Home Sweet Home", famed as John Howard Payne's birthplace, and now used as a musemn, and the Gardiner Mill (1771) just across the road from the ancient village burying ground. Its spars for carrying the sails were destroyed by the hurricane of 1938 but its machinery is intact.
At Water Mill village stands the smallest of the mills and the only one with a tail pole for turning the sails into the wind. It was built in 1800 at North Haven and moved to its present location in 1813 by ox teams.
On the Berwind estate at Bridgehampton is a well preserved mill with a gracefully finished crown and an automatic wind-steering device. It was built in 1820 on Sleights Hill at Sag Harbor, where, on the arrival of whaling ships a flag was always raised on the mill- hence the old saying, "Flag on the mill-ship in the bay" It was moved to Bridgehampton in 1837.
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The Gardiner Windmill at East Hampton
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The Windmill at Water Mill, Southampton Town
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At Hayground just east of Water Mill there stands a weather- worn mill built in 1801 and last operated in 1919. Its sail arms and main shaft were destroyed by a gale in 1938.
For many years a much-travelled mill stood on Montauk Point as part of a summer residence. It was built in 1763 at Southampton, thence moved to Wainscott, later moved to Montauk. In 1942, when the U. S. Army took over Montauk Point the old mill was moved back to Wainscott by a group of Georgica Pond residents.
The old mill on the Sylvester Manor at Shelter Island. Built in 1795 at South- old, it was transported by barge across Shelter Island Sound
Old windmill at Hayground, near Bridgehampton, built in 1801 and op- erated last in 1909. Sail arms de- stroyed in 1930 gales
Over on Gardiner's Island stands a mill built in 1803. It is painted white and serves as a landmark for yachtsmen. On Shelter Island the Sylvester Mill was operated during the first World War until 1919. It was built in 1810 at Southold and transported by barge across Shelter Island Sound some years later. Serving as part of a summer home in Southampton is a mill that was transported from Good Ground (now Hampton Bays) in 1890. Another mill, part of a summer residence on Shinnecock Hills, was moved from Mill Hill in Southampton in 1889 and is supposed to have been built between 1697 and 1713.
Full data and detailed measurements of these remaining historic Long Island structures were obtained in 1932 by Rex Wailes of London, millwright engineer and technical advisor for the English Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. He had previously inspected the windmills of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Follow-
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ing his visit to Long Island with the writer, he prepared a descriptive technical paper about this large group of remaining Long Island windmills for the Newcomen Society of London and New York, which was delivered in 1935. His conclusions were that all eastern Long Island windmills were constructed according to English design and practice. He could find no Dutch (or Holland) influence in them but mentions some original features not found in other American mills which he ascribes to the ingenuity of the builders.
Here then on eastern Long Island are the visible reliques of long ago. The oldest of the effective mills is the Gardiner at East Hamp- ton, 1771, but many years before this, old records mention numerous windmills, both grist and saw mills, that served their time in the "East Riding" of Long Island. Nowhere has been found definite record of the first mill to be erected by the first pioneers. But many mills were built and served their useful purpose during the 17th century.
May Long Island's old windmills be long preserved for the edifica- tion of its people and their posterity. Their preservation to date has been through purchase by, or presentation to municipalities, or they have remained in the possession of descendents of their former owners, or preserved as parts of summer homes. They are evidence of the beginning of free private enterprise which has made America great and prosperous.
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CHAPTER XLII
Aviation on Long Island PRESTON R. BASSETT President, Sperry Gyroscope Company
A PHASE of Long Island's history which has been much neglected is the unique part which it has played in the development of aeronautics. The Island, with its beautiful level, grassy plains, became a natural flying field for the earliest birdmen. Then later, as airplanes could venture forth, its geographical position proved to be ideal. To the west of it stretches the whole width of the United States, to the east of it extends the great Atlantic Ocean. Strategically placed near the largest city in America and at the very boundary between the two most important expanses of land and water, it soon became the focal point or zero milestone for most of the great flights which were the stepping stones of progress in building aviation history. All of these factors have made it one of the great aviation centers of the world.
In tracing the early history, however, we must go back to the days when aeronautics meant ballooning. Balloonists generally shunned Long Island, surrounded as it was by water. However, the Island did furnish a safety barrier for the occasional balloonist who found himself drifting from the mainland towards the ocean. These occasional hurried descents of America's pioneer balloonists as they grappled for the last hold on terra firma were Long Island's intro- duction to the air age.
The decade of the 1830s marked the inauguration of American aeronautical history. During these years Professor Charles F. Durant, the first great American aeronaut, made a series of ascents in an American-made balloon. Several of these ascents were made from Castle Garden, New York. One of the most interesting of them was made in June, 1833. An unusually large crowd had gathered around Castle Garden at the Battery, attracted not only to watch the ascent, but also to see President Andrew Jackson, who was to witness the event. The take-off was made in a fair breeze and the balloon drifted up Manhattan Island and then swung over Brooklyn until it was "a speck in the sky" to the spectators. The balloon then drifted south- eastward over Long Island and headed for Jamaica Bay. Durant therefore had to maneuver for a quick landing, which he accomplished expertly by bringing the balloon down at the Union Course Racetrack in Jamaica. The first great American aeronaut thus introduced aeronautics to Long Island.
It was not until 1860 that Long Island was again visited, this time by another famous balloonist, Professor John Wise. Wise had made a great many successful ascents throughout the country over a period of twenty-five years and was considered the most experienced
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aeronaut in America. In April, 1860, Professor Wise made an ascent from Palace Garden, a small private park located at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street in New York City, which he says, in a masterpiece of understatement, "became more interesting than I anticipated". A few notes from his story of the flight will give an idea of his first acquaintance with Long Island.
After sailing a few minutes in the southeast breeze, I went northward straight over the length of Randall's Island. There I rose higher and struck a breeze from the west and made for Flushing; there I descended with the intention of landing at Whitestone. A strong southeast surface wind was blowing. In coming down the last 1000 feet, the balloon made three miles in five minutes and I struck the ground near Bininger's cottage mansion on the shore of the Sound. In the concussion the balloon careened so much as to tilt out of the car a sand bag. As soon as the Ganymede recovered her perpendicular, she made a bound over the cottage, swinging the grapnel into the eaves of the roof, but the balloon being stronger than the part where the hook took effect, the eaves gave way. The hook next took effect in a big tree between the cottage and the Sound. A squall sent the balloon reeling on the beach with the rim of the wicker basket cut through by the anchor rope. In another moment my car was on the ocean wave. The squalls now and then became so violent as to careen the balloon over until she touched the sea, flounder- ing me into the waters up to my shoulders and putting me through several hydropathic exercises not pleasurable to con- template. I was half an hour in being dragged over the bay about a mile and a half in breadth. As we approached the opposite shore, a full open valve rendered the Ganymede so docile as to enable her to drag me well up on the beach with her water saturated load. Wet and chilled, I reached the land a little below Throgg's Neck on the premises of D. L. Lawrence, Esq., whose kindly comforts I shall ever remember with gratitude.
This exciting episode occurred at about the point where the Whitestone Bridge now touches Long Island. John Wise never bal- looned over Long Island again.
It was thirteen years before Long Island again saw a balloon. In the meantime the Civil War had been fought and the country, rapidly recovering from the war, was astir with scientific projects. Among the less practical but more romantic of these projects was the proposal to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air. A young and daring aeronaut, W. H. Donaldson, with the help of Professor John Wise, had persuaded the New York Daily Graphic to finance the construc- tion of a great balloon for this bold undertaking. In 1873 the balloon was built and named the Daily Graphic. Now for the first time Long Island was going to play a part in making aeronautical history. The Capitoline Grounds, which were located at Halsey Street between
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Nostrand and Marcy Avenues in Brooklyn, were selected as the place of ascension. Professor Donaldson, in order to become familiar with the local winds and terrain, made a number of short flights from these Brooklyn grounds during September, 1873, in a smaller balloon named the Magenta. On one of these flights he floated east over Creedmoor and descended near the Long Island Rail Road depot at Queens. Two. days later he made another ascent from the same Brooklyn grounds and after an hour landed again near Queens, where a crowd quickly gathered. As he still had considerable lift left, he invited the ladies to volunteer to make a captive ascent the length of the drag rope. He reports that he "had his hands full as all the ladies wanted to go".
Early in the morning of October 7th there was great activity at the Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn. The inflation of the great balloon was proceeding rapidly, crowds were gathering, and by 8.30 it was ready. The crew of three climbed aboard the strange craft. They were Professor W. H. Donaldson, aeronaut, Alfred Ford, navigator, and George Lunt, Daily Graphic reporter. At 9.19 A. M. the great ship rose amid three rousing cheers, one for each member of the crew. At first it drifted to the north, but at 5000 feet it struck an eastward current and drifted out over Long Island; at 10 A. M. the speck dis- appeared from the sight of the watchers. It was not until 3 P. M. that afternoon that an accident report came in from New Canaan, Connecticut. The balloon had become lost in thickening storm clouds, had descended over unknown country only to find itself being swept along too fast for a landing, and Donaldson called for all hands to jump when they dipped to within 30 feet of the ground. Donaldson and Ford made the leap onto soft plowed ground, but Lunt hung on to the ropes and was carried away. Fortunately, Lunt hung on until the balloon swept close to a hilltop where he let go and landed safely in a tree top. The balloon was lost. The first transatlantic effort ended within 60 miles of its starting point, but Long Island had been marked for a place in transocean flying history, of which this was only the first faltering step.
One would expect this experience to cure Professor Donaldson, at least for a time, so it is with some surprise that we find in the records that even before the end of this same month, in fact, on October 29, 1873, Donaldson had taken off again,-this time from Newark, New Jersey, on another local ascent. The wind, however, carried him due east over New York Bay and on to Brooklyn. The descent was "quite exciting and dangerous. The balloon came down on Long Island, striking the ground with great force. It was drifting southward rapidly. The hooks failed to catch and for half an hour it went lifting and bumping over the ground, knocking down several people and creating great consternation". Donaldson in the wicker basket was dashed against a fence, "breaking four rails in twain". The balloon crossed the track of the Brooklyn, Central and Jamaica Railroad and came very near being "dashed to pieces by an oncoming train", but on it went, bouncing and dragging until it crashed against a house, "bring- ing to a sudden end its wild career". Donaldson came through with only cuts and bruises.
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This might be considered a good point to end the story of the hazards of ballooning on Long Island, but that would not be fair either to Donaldson or Long Island. One more flight, all but forgotten, should be recorded. On July 21, 1874, Donaldson made an ascent from the "Hippodrome" in New York City. It was a fine summer day and the balloon drifted easily out over Long Island. He reached an altitude of 6000 feet, but at 5.40 P. M. brought the balloon down at Pearsall's (now Lynbrook). It being a pleasant, quiet evening, he did not deflate the balloon, but reports that "a lady whose curiosity was greater than her timidity was treated to a limited ascension, the balloon being secured by a rope". At 6.20 P. M. Donaldson reascended and drifted on the light sea breeze to the village of Hempstead, where he landed at 7 o'clock. After supper he made a moonlight ascension "for the benefit of the natives", making his final landing in a field four miles from the village. And so aeronautics first discovered Hempstead Plains and the "natives" of Nassau County had their first auspicious glimpse of the air age.
There is no need of recording the later balloon ascents and descents on the Island. They were not many, but even as late as 1905 an occasional balloon would pass southward over Flatbush and the young boys would all jump on their bicycles and pedal south to see its hurried landing on the broad Dutch farms of Flatlands before the breeze could carry it over the marshes to the ocean.
Certainly, nothing yet pointed to any great aeronautical future for Long Island. The natives were not too impressed by anything they had seen and the aeronauts did not care for Long Island. But by this time other things were happening in the field of aeronautics. The Wright brothers had made their first flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903 and there were occasional rumors that they were still improving their flying machine out at Dayton. Yet they gave no demonstration either to the public or to the press for several years and the signifi- cance of their work was, therefore, quite unappreciated.
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