By JOHN CONWAY
It’s a historical fact that virtually every significant economic milestone in Sullivan County history was made possible by a major advancement in transportation.
This relationship between transportation and economic growth began in 1764, when Daniel Skinner realized he could utilize the raging currents of the untamed Delaware River to raft timber to Philadelphia. It continued with the construction of the Newburgh-Cochecton Turnpike, which was built beginning in 1801, and the D&H Canal, constructed in 1828. Without these advances, the tanning and bluestone industries, which were the economic linchpins of the region for much of the 19th century, would not have been possible.
The arrival of the railroads—the Erie to the upper Delaware valley in 1850 and the Monticello & Port Jervis and the New York & Oswego Midland (later known as the Ontario & Western) to the center of the county in the 1870s—created the tourism phenomenon we today call the Silver Age, during which a couple of hundred hotels catered to guests who came to the mountains by rail, offering them fresh air, clean water, and farm fresh milk and produce. And the creation of Route 17 was a critical element in the incredible growth of the resort industry here into the Golden Age the region enjoyed from 1940 to 1965, when 538 hotels graced the Sullivan County landscape, along with 1,000 rooming houses and 50,000 bungalows.
As the county celebrates its 200th birthday this year, searching for another significant economic milestone, a new major advancement in transportation is sorely needed. It might be something as simple as reviving passenger traffic along the old Erie line, where commuter trains still travel as far north as Port Jervis. Narrowsburg could become the great debarking point it once was, with direct access by a short link to the Bethel Woods Performing Arts Center. Or it could be something much more dramatic. Dare we envision a futuristic dual-mode transportation system in which automobiles—preferably small electric powered vehicles—are ferried long distances by large trucks? Many engineers predict this resource-saving concept is the future of transportation, not just in America, but worldwide, and wouldn’t it be something if Sullivan County were in the vanguard of development? With the county legislature’s stated commitment to "green technology" it seems like a natural.
Folks traveling to work from the river corridor to the Monticello area—think large employers such as the government, Catskill Regional Medical, the Center for Discovery—drive their electric vehicles to a special terminal in Barryville, where they are driven onto a large, bio-diesel powered transport truck that can carry perhaps 16 or 20 of them. Once the cars are on the truck, they are locked in place, and the drivers can read a newspaper, or watch an entertainment unit in their "pod." When the truck is loaded, it makes its way to another terminal in say, Harris, where the vehicles drive off and disperse to their destinations. Then the process is repeated as needed.
Think of the gasoline that would be saved. Think of the reduction in emissions. Think of the reduction in stress for those being ferried to and from work. It might seem like science fiction today, but this is what many experts say we’ll be seeing soon. Why not here?
Who knows what significant economic milestone might be made possible by this major advancement in transportation?
[John Conway of Barryville is the Sullivan County Historian and an adjunct professor at SUNY-Sullivan. He majored in mechanical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. His latest book, Sullivan County: A Bicentennial History in Images is due to be released next month.]