When was the Long Island Rail Road established?
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The LIRR's history stretches back to the Brooklyn and Jamaica Rail Road, incorporated on April 25, 1832 to build a ten-mile line from the East River in Brooklyn through the communities of Brooklyn, Bedford, and East New York to Jamaica. B&J engineer Major D. B. Douglass soon began planning for a continuation, forming part of an 11-hour combination rail and steamship route between New York City and Boston in cooperation with the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad and Boston and Providence Rail Road. The current all-land route (Shore Line) across southern Connecticut was considered impassable at the time due to numerous hills and river valleys. Douglass attracted wealthy New Yorkers and Bostonians, who received a charter for the Long-Island Rail-Road Company on April 24, 1834, with the right "to construct, and during its existence to maintain and continue a rail-road or rail-roads, with a single or double track, and with such appendages as may be deemed necessary for the convenient use of the same, commencing at any eligible point adjoining Southold Bay, in or near the village of Greenport, in the county of Suffolk, and extending from thence, on the most practicable route, through or near the middle of Long-Island, to a point on the water's edge in the village of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings, to be designated by the trustees of that village, and to a point on the water's edge in the village of Williamsburgh, in the said county of Kings, to be designated by the trustees of that village, and in like manner to construct, maintain and continue a branch rail-road from the said main road to Sag Harbor". It was also authorized to unite with the Brooklyn and Jamaica with the consent of that company. Since its plan was not to serve local traffic on Long Island, the LIRR chose not to serve existing communities along the shores of the island, but built straight down the middle of the island, which was largely uninhabited at the time and relatively free of grade crossings. This straight route was the quickest and the easiest to build, compared to the options of being built along the northern coast of Long Island, or being built in a north-central route following the Middle Country Road. The LIRR was organized on June 17, 1835, and Knowles Taylor was elected president.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
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The Long Island Rail Road Company was chartered in 1834 to provide a daily service between New York and Boston via a ferry connection between its Greenport, New York, terminal on Long Island's North Fork and Stonington, Connecticut. This service was superseded in 1849 by the land route through Connecticut that became part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The LIRR refocused its attentions towards serving Long Island, in competition with other railroads on the island. In the 1870s, railroad president Conrad Poppenhusen and his successor Austin Corbin acquired all the railroads and consolidated them into the LIRR.
Long Island Rail Road
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The Long Island Rail Road established the Medford Station in 1843 in a flat wilderness in the Long Island Central Pine Barrens. The station connected to the Patchogue Stage Road between Patchogue and Port Jefferson, and a post office was established.
Medford, New York
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The Long Island Rail Road was begun as a combined ferry-rail route to Boston via Greenport. The predecessor to the Long Island Rail Road began service in 1836 from the ferry terminal (to Manhattan) through Brooklyn to Jamaica in Queens, and completed the line to the east end of Long Island in 1844. Other rail lines to Coney Island, the Rockaways and Long Beach serviced the beach resort towns. The growing and merging railroads opened up more than 50 stations in (present-day) Nassau County and over 40 in Suffolk Country, laying the foundation for the future suburbanization of the island.
History of Long Island
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Central Railroad of Long Island was built on Long Island, New York, by Alexander Turney Stewart, who was also the founder of Garden City. The railroad was established in 1871, then merged with the Flushing and North Side Railroad in 1874 to form the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad. It was finally acquired by the Long Island Rail Road in 1876 and divided into separate branches. Despite its short existence, the CRRLI had a major impact on railroading and development on Long Island.
Central Railroad of Long Island
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By the early 1880s, there had been pressure to expand rail service eastward. At this time another railroad, the Northern Railroad of Long Island threatened the Long island Rail Road's monopoly. The Northern Railroad was incorporated on March 23, 1881, and it planned to build a road from Astoria to Northport via Flushing, Great Neck, Glen Cove, Oyster Bay and Huntington. By June 1881, construction plans were authorized and in mid-July the building contract was signed, with work set to begin in August. The Long Island Rail Road attempted to undermine the Northern Railroad's project before it could sell stock and acquire a roadbed. It was going to link its north side branches together as a continuous railroad to Northport. Construction cost from Great Neck to Roslyn and from Locust Valley to Northport was approximately $400,000.
Oyster Bay Branch
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The Freeport Railroad was based in Freeport, New York, and existed between 1913 and 1924.
In the early-20th Century, the Long Island Rail Road installed a trolley line that ran along the former CRRLI Main Line between Garden City Station and Plainedge from 1915 to 1933. A connection to Country Life Press station was established in 1927. Trolleys were replaced by MP41's and later MP54's.
List of streetcar lines on Long Island
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In 1912, William Kissam Vanderbilt II used the Central Rail Road bridge over Bell Boulevard as part of the Long Island Motor Parkway right of way. This caused the parkway to curve slightly south for the crossing. New York State Parks Department later built the current bridge over Bell Boulevard just north of the original site when they acquired the land for a bicycle path in 1938. The original Rail Road right of way leading to the bridge can still be seen when headed east immediately prior to the current crossing.
Central Railroad of Long Island
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In late March 1877, Brooklyn finally authorized the LIRR to return to Atlantic Avenue with steam locomotives, and the LIRR leased the main line of the Atlantic Avenue Railroad (the final successor to the B&J) east of Fort Greene Place (just east of Flatbush Avenue) on June 1, 1877 for $60,000 per year. An opening excursion from the new Flatbush Avenue terminal was held on July 1, 1877, and regular service in the form of through trains to Long Island began on July 2. Small Atlantic Avenue rapid transit steam locomotives began providing local service for five cents west of East New York on August 13, later extended all the way to Rockaway Junction (east of Jamaica). (The Brooklyn City Rail Road established a similar "rapid transit" service a week later on its Third Avenue Line to Fort Hamilton.)
History of the Long Island Rail Road
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The Central Railroad was built with high standards; it was built with almost no grade crossings, even though it went through rural country. As a result of the need to cross roads, the railroad had to go above or below the grade of the roads, adding to construction costs. The cost of the bridging and tunneling was $110,000. Along the line, two iron bridges were built over Ireland Mill Creek, which drained Kissena Lake, as well as twenty culverts. Steel rails were shipping to Garden City on the Central Railroad at the end of July 1871, when the Long Island Rail Road started shipping them from the docks at Hunter's Point. The rails were distributed and the ties were laid out in August, and the first rail on the plains segment was laid on October 20, near the LIRR crossing, and at two other points eastward. The laying of the track was done rapidly in order not to incur a fine of $250 per day. Three of the nine miles had been laid by December 23. On December 12, the Lawrence Street tunnel, located in Flushing, was finished.
Central Railroad of Long Island