History of The Long Island Rail Road - Gateway To Boston, 1832-1840s

Gateway To Boston, 1832-1840s

The LIRR's history stretches back to the Brooklyn and Jamaica Rail Road, incorporated on April 25, 1832 to build 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 impassible 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. The LIRR was organized on June 17, 1835, and Knowles Taylor was elected president.

The Brooklyn and Jamaica opened its full line, roughly along the present Atlantic Avenue from South Ferry to 151st Street in Jamaica, on April 18, 1836. The B&J never operated its own trains, since that same day it was leased to the LIRR for $33,300 a year, a rather high amount for the time based on expected heavy traffic to Boston. Even before the B&J opened, the LIRR began planning a branch to the Grand Street Ferry in Williamsburg, leaving the B&J at Bedford, to avoid congestion in Brooklyn. The LIRR started to build the B&J's continuation beyond Jamaica immediately upon completion of the Brooklyn-Jamaica line, opening to Hicksville on March 1, 1837. Hicksville remained the terminal for the next four years due to the financial panic of 1837.

An 1836 supplement to the charter authorized a branch to Hempstead. The short Hempstead Branch, running south from the Main Line at Mineola, opened in 1839. The LIRR slowly extended east, reaching Farmingdale in 1841, and completing the Main Line in 1844. An opening excursion to Greenport was operated on July 27, 1844, making the trip in three and a half hours, and revenue service began over the full line on July 29. The LIRR bought the steamboat Cleopatra from Cornelius Vanderbilt, then known for his ferry empire, to cover the Long Island Sound crossing, and began operating to Stonington, Connecticut on August 10. Vanderbilt was elected to the LIRR board of directors on November 26. The opening of the Cobble Hill Tunnel along the Brooklyn and Jamaica west of downtown Brooklyn on December 3, 1844 decreased the slope to the waterfront and allowed locomotives to run through to South Ferry, eliminating a horse car transfer. The LIRR began operating the Worcester and New Haven steamboats in 1845, and established a second route to Boston via steamboat to Allyn's Point and the Norwich and Worcester Railroad and Boston and Worcester Railroad. But competition from the Hartford and New Haven Railroad (completed 1844) and steamboats from New York caused the LIRR to sell the Worcester and Cleopatra to the N&W in July 1846, and the early 1847 completion of the Fall River Line cut into profits enough that the New Haven was sold to Jacob Vanderbilt, ending Boston express service.