Greater Astoria Historial Society 35-20 Broadway, 4th Floor | L.I.C., NY 11106 718.278.0700 | www.astorialic.org Gallery Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 2-5 PM Saturdays 12-5 PM Exhibits ~ Lectures ~ Documentaries ~ Books Walking Tours ~ Historical Research Unique & Creative Content For more information visit us on the web at www.astorialic.org This image adapted from an invitation to the Long Island City Athletics 33rd Annual Masque Ball, 1909. 32 January 2017 i LIC COURIER i www.qns.com Legends “On the Way to Prosperity!” Newly minted Long Island City found its purpose when transportation options between Flushing and Manhattan were no longer reliable. Stagecoaches, dating from colonial times, had limited seating and could only make two daily trips to New York. Travel, over rutted muddy cow paths, was a nightmare. The other option, ferry boats (in service since about 1820) could not run when the East River froze over – as it often did in during the brutal nineteenth century winters. Even worse, competing boats often rammed into each other as they raced through the dangerous Hell Gate. Terrified passengers, after barely escaping disaster during one such harrowing ride, even sued the steamboat company in 1853. It was no surprise that the 2,000 residents of the Village of Flushing started to agitate for a railroad. After the Long Island Railroad bypassed the village by laying its trackage down the middle of the island, irate residents decided to raise capital for their own line. In 1852 they chartered the Flushing Railroad, a rail line tasked with linking Flushing to a Manhattan ferry terminal, a task that proved initially impossible. Residents in Williamsburg and Greenpoint did not want the nuisance of another town’s locomotive noise and soot. These were not issues for Queens. Eager to develop Hunters Point, its developers had no qualms about persuading the Flushing line’s promoters to locate their terminus in their community – even going as far as donating $20,000 of land for a ferry dock. On June 26, 1854 the new railroad began service. Their station, a shanty with open sides, was on the southeast corner of 54th Avenue and 5th Street. Their line ran from Flushing, through Elmhurst (then called Newtown), then along the bank of Newtown Creek, and from there, to the East River. The rail line leased two steamboat ferries, “Enoch Dean” and “Island City” for service to Fulton Street in New York. Service soon fell apart. In September 1855 the “Enoch Dean” was withdrawn. The “Island City” was sold in May 1858. The Flushing Railroad was bankrupt by the following year. As luck would have it, the Long Island Rail Road, also stymied by Brooklyn’s ban on locomotives, was seeking a location for a ferry terminal on the East River. Again Hunters Point tendered an offer which was promptly accepted. On September 3, 1859 the Long Island incorporated the “New York and Jamaica Railroad Company” to build a new main line from Jamaica to Hunter’s Point. After securing control of the bankrupt Flushing Railroad, they were able to use that road’s right of way along Newtown Creek and to share joint use of the existing rail yard and dock on the East River. In 1861 the Long Island Rail Road opened service to Hunter’s Point with a network that embraced all of Long Island. Newspapers crowed: “Hunters Point is now launched on the way to prosperity!”
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