Staten Island Railway
The earliest portions of the Staten Island Railway were built in 1860 connecting the ferry landing at Tompkinsville with the village of Tottenville, New York. Looking to expand into the New York City area, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad purchased the line in 1885. The B&O financed the construction of new ferry terminals and slips at St. George, as well as a branch along the north shore of the island to connect to New Jersey via a bridge over the Arthur Kill. Known as the Staten Island Rapid Transit, the line provided freight and passenger service to the island, and the passenger service was electrified in 1925. In 1971, the rapid transit passenger operations were turned over to the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority, a division of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The B&O and successors Chessie System and CSX Transportation continued to operate freight service on the island until 1985 when SIRT was sold to the Delaware Otsego Corp. Operated as the Staten Island Railway (SIRY) mostly with spare equipment and crews from the Susquehanna, little was accomplished in the way of improvements. Crews were based out of Arlington Yard, and sometimes would be called to work the neighboring Rahway Valley Railroad, acquired by DO in 1986. One of the last regular freight moves off Staten Island took place in March 1991. The railroad filed for abandonment in December 1991, and AK Drawbridge was left locked in the raised position. The lines on Staten Island were subsequently transferred to the New York City Economic Development Corp. and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for future development.
Read more about this topic: Delaware Otsego Corporation
Famous quotes containing the words staten island, staten, island and/or railway:
“I have hardly begun to live on Staten Island yet; but, like the man who, when forbidden to tread on English ground, carried Scottish ground in his boots, I carry Concord ground in my boots and in my hat,—and am I not made of Concord dust? I cannot realize that it is the roar of the sea I hear now, and not the wind in Walden woods. I find more of Concord, after all, in the prospect of the sea, beyond Sandy Hook, than in the fields and woods.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I have hardly begun to live on Staten Island yet; but, like the man who, when forbidden to tread on English ground, carried Scottish ground in his boots, I carry Concord ground in my boots and in my hat,—and am I not made of Concord dust? I cannot realize that it is the roar of the sea I hear now, and not the wind in Walden woods. I find more of Concord, after all, in the prospect of the sea, beyond Sandy Hook, than in the fields and woods.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)