The New York Connecting Railroad
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ERA BULLETIN — JULY, 2017 The Bulletin Electric Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated Vol. 60, No. 7 July, 2017 The Bulletin STATEN ISLAND’S 157-YEAR-OLD RAILROAD Published by the Electric (Continued from June, 2017 issue) Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated, PO Box In the previous issue, we described the its rivals, B&O acquired a majority of Staten 3323, New York, New construction of the railroad and its financial Island Rapid Transit Railroad Company’s York 10163-3323. problems. This issue features the North stock in November, 1885. Shore and East Shore extensions and the Construction proceeded rapidly, as shown For general inquiries, or joint operation with the Baltimore & Ohio in the following reports. The soil and rock fill Bulletin submissions, Railroad. for the St. George piers and the North Shore contact us at bulletin@ erausa.org. ERA’s B&O was expanding east in New Jersey, Branch was transported from the excavations website is but had difficulty reaching the most important where large buildings were constructed in www.erausa.org. destination, New York City. To compete with Manhattan. Editorial Staff: February 23, 1886 First train to Elm Park Editor-in-Chief: A month later Extended to Arlington Bernard Linder 1886 Work began on Arthur Kill Bridge to Elizabethport Tri-State News and Commuter Rail Editor: 1888 Completed trestle approach to bridge Ronald Yee Year ending Extended over the bridge across Arthur Kill, connecting with the North American and World June 30, 1890 Baltimore & New York Railroad, a B&O subsidiary, at Elizabethport. News Editor: This was its first connection with the mainland. The company built a Alexander Ivanoff Contributing Editor: second track, 1.3 miles long, from Erastina to the bridge approach Jeffrey Erlitz March 1, 1890 The company began carrying B&O’s freight to St. George. B&O em- ployees handled the freight and the transfer of cars to ships carrying Production Manager: cars over the water from St. George to Manhattan and Brooklyn David Ross Year ending The company built one covered and two open piers, a transfer June 30, 1890 bridge, and a freight yard at the Staten Island terminal. It completed ©2017 Elect ric new ferry buildings and piers at Whitehall Street in Manhattan Railroaders ’ 1887 Constructed second track from Clifton to New Dorp Association, January 1, 1888 Trains started operating to Arrochar Incorporate d 1888 New stations were built at Garretson and New Dorp 1894 Construction of South Beach Branch was completed On July 29, 1899, the Staten Island Rapid South Ferry. In This Issue: Transit Railway Company was incorporated The Arthur Kill Bridge, which was opened in From for the purpose of operating the Staten Island 1890, speeded up freight traffic between New Recognition to Rapid Transit Railroad Company from New Jersey and St. George, but it still had to Dominance— Dorp and South Beach to the center of Arthur cross the harbor on slow boats. At the insist- The New York Kill. Nearly all of the capital stock of this com- ence of civic groups, the State Legislature pany is owned by the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- and Mayor Hylan approved a bill ordering Connecting road. New York City to build a rail tunnel between Railroad In 1905, the City of New York started oper- Brooklyn and Staten Island. The bill was (Continued) ating the Staten Island Ferry. It rebuilt the signed by the Governor of New York State on …Page 2 Whitehall Street docks, ordered five new May 13, 1921. Because the law prohibited boats, and changed the terminal’s name to (Continued on page 16) NEXT TRIP: NYC TRANSIT 207th STREET1 SHOP TOUR — SATURDAY, AUGUST 5 NEW YORKERA DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN — JULY, OCTOBER, 2017 2000 FROM RECOGNITION TO DOMINANCE: THE NEW YORK CONNECTING RAILROAD (BRIDGING THE BAY AND CONNECTING THE PIECES) by George Chiasson (Continued from June, 2017 issue) ● Section “D” was also about 2½ miles long, continu- street. That which jointly passed above 3rd (55th) ing south from Grand Avenue in Elmhurst to Street, Jackson Avenue (Northern Boulevard), and “Fremont Junction,” where the New York Connect- Broadway (another new road extension) was actu- ing Railroad merged into the existing Manhattan ally a short but graceful viaduct of concrete- Beach Division of the Long Island Rail Road, near encased steel with trimming that was also subject to the intersection of Central Avenue and Fresh Pond scrutiny from the New York City Arts Commission, Road (now Cypress Hills Street) in Ridgewood. Al- while the final overpass above the intersection of most entirely located in an open cut, this section Anderson (37th) & Woodside Avenues was a true was also graded for four tracks but only received steel-and-concrete railway bridge in the finest tradi- two, with six (6) underpasses (street bridges) locat- tion that slightly encroached on the property of the ed at Grand Avenue (also used by BRT’s Flushing- New York & Queens County Railroad Company. As Ridgewood trolley line), the North Hempstead Plank such it had to provide for passage above that com- Road (later Whitlock, then 57th Avenue), Johnson pany’s trolley barn and office building. (later Caldwell) Avenue, Eliot Avenue, Juniper Aside from the small, nondescript embankment ad- Boulevard & Marion Avenue (69th Place), and Juni- joined to “H” Interlocking at the edge of Sunnyside Yard, per Avenue (69th Street). The portion from Johnson there was no physical sign of the Pennsylvania’s hard- to Marion Avenues was actually cut through a large fought New York Connecting Railroad to be found dur- tract of undeveloped land known as the “Great Juni- ing a Penn Station facilities tour of August 1, 1910, per Swamp” and was done part and parcel with its though its existence and assumed completion was al- overall redevelopment as the western third of the ready well-known and highly anticipated. In point of fact Queens neighborhood of Middle Village, a task the very first steam shovelfuls of earth were already which included the laying of both Eliot Avenue and being moved on Sections C and D by that time, with Juniper Boulevard as completely new arteries. grading begun in July of 1910 for a 5-mile embankment, South of the Juniper Avenue0 underpass, the New cut, and tunnel from the projected site of “Bowery Bay York Connecting Railroad entered a tunnel beneath Junction” southward to the line’s interception point with the Lutheran Cemetery grounds, then re-emerged the Long Island Rail Road’s Montauk Division (ex- onto a rising grade at Metropolitan Avenue (where Southern) main line at Fresh Pond Junction. At the time another BRT trolley line crossed overhead) before that preliminary work in Sunnyside was actually the cre- passing above the LIRR Montauk Division main line ation of a high fill in the nothingness of a swampland (née Southern) on steel truss Bridge #35. It then and nowhere near a railroad, but in the vein of Sunny- crossed above Fremont (65th) Street on an over- side Yard itself numerous properties had been previous- pass before merging with the Manhattan Beach Di- ly procured (as far back as 1904) in anticipation of its vision just north of Fresh Pond Road. Related relo- eventual construction. Several homes were demolished cation and reconstruction work was also performed as the survey burrowed its way south-by-southeast, on the BRT “Lutheran” (Myrtle Avenue) Line and the along a path very similar to that later followed by (and Montauk Division itself as part of the same project. still partly shared with) the Brooklyn-Queens Express- ● Section “E” covered less than one mile, from Bow- way through Woodside and into Elmhurst. Perhaps the ery Bay Junction to Woodside Avenue at the east- most significant “advance” (pre-construction) project ern extreme of the Pennsylvania’s “H” Interlocking associated with the New York Connecting Railroad had and Sunnyside Yard. It consisted of a curving, two- been a relocation of the former Bushwick Railroad (i.e. track embankment that merged into a blind “header” “Lutheran Line”) at Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Vil- wall (bridge abutment) which had been provided lage, where a forecast clash of surveys resulted in the during the Pennsylvania Tunnel & Terminal project. installation a new 500-foot embankment, as well as Included were six (6) railway overpasses of varying movement of the existing terminal approximately 100 origin that were created in conjunction with the feet west of its original (1881) location, all in association city’s never-ending efforts at street grid establish- with its conversion to a BRT rapid transit service as an ment. The three at Jamaica (31st) and Charlotte extension of the Myrtle Avenue Elevated Line in Octo- (32nd) Avenues and 4th (56th) Street were of simple ber, 1906. steel and concrete construction and crossed above By the 1912 construction season, elevation and ex- existing roads; the overpass at 2nd (54th) Street was pansion work had been started on the balance of the similarly built but made way for a completely new (Continued on page 3) 2 ERA BULLETIN — JULY, 2017 From Recognition to Dominance Cemetery at Metropolitan Avenue. Finally, to avoid the installation of a sudden, harsh curve on the south side (Continued from page 2) of Metropolitan Avenue, the Pennsylvania Railroad ulti- Manhattan Beach Division’s trackage from the former mately bore the cost of relocating the Metropolitan Ave- Brooklyn “City Line” (near Cooper Avenue Junction) to nue BRT terminus about 50 feet eastward during the its meeting point with the Montauk Division main line at summer of 1916 in deference to the New York Connect- Fresh Pond Yard, as it was also raised onto a four-track ing Railroad’s projected alignment, which entailed the embankment.