Connecticut western news., 1872-01-05

SALISBURY, CONN.
 Friday Morning, Jan. 9th, 1872. Historical Sketch of the origin of the
 COmm.SVesterm Railroad.
 In the year 1865, railroad project was started by several ot the capitalists and citizens of Fishkill and Poughkeepsie, N. Y.; their original design being to start road from each place and run in an easterly direction till they reached a point about half way between the Hudson river and the Harlem roads, and then unite the two roads and form one main trunk and extend the same in northerly direction into Columbia county. and tap the Harlem road at what is known as Bains station, about 13 miles east of the city of Hudson, to be called the ''Dutchess and Columbia railroad, dis tance of about 60 miles north east from Fishkill. Work was begun on the branch from the latter place, but nothing was done at this time on the Poughkeepsie branch.
 About the year 1866 the Conn. Western railroad was projected by E. T. Butler Esq. of Norfolk and others. The road was sur veyed and found practicable from Hart ford to the state line between Massachu- setts and Connecticut in the town of Can aan. It was designed to extend it into Massachusetts, and connect it with the Albany branch of the Housatonic road at : Van Deusenville, and the ronte was care fully surveyed and found rrac icahle, = though much doubt had existed on this point. On reaching the state lie at East Sheffield Massachusetts, Mir. Butler and the projectors of the Duchess and Colum- bia road were simultaneously informed that feasible railroad route existed between Canaan and several points on the line of the latter road. Mir. Butler and engineer explored the route and pronounced it prac- tcable. The projectors of the two roads met and an instrumental survey was re- solved upon and duly made. and resulted dn finding the route practicable beyond all doubt. Each company then abandoned for the present at least, the proposed original northern termination of these respective roads, and turned their lines toward each otlAr, designing to meet on the state line between Connecticut and New York, at a point about one mile east of the Millerton station on the Harlem road
 The Poughkeepsic people withheld their aid from the Duchess and Columbia road, and immediately projected an independani road, first tapping the D. & 0. road a, ohn < oc Plains, where the latter road diverges from it. Its originalsroute runs easterly towards the Conn. and N. Y. state line; it then runs by the side of the D. & c. road a few miles, and continues on a northerly course and crosses the Harlem road al Boston Corners, and then a southerly course and terminating and connecting with the Conn. Western at the state line at the point above named. This road is called the Poughkeepsie and Eastern railroad. It ii completed from the latter place to the Duchess and Columbia road, to and from which several trains now pass daily! While these two roads have been building third and probably more important road from the Hudson river to the Conn. Western has been projected and work commenced called the Rhinebcck and Connecticut rail. road, and will soon be completed, also con- meeting with the former at the state line or Millerton. Thus, three important points on the Hudson river are reached via the Conn. Western railroad from Hartford. The Rhinphpok ia not onlv tbo obor+oet route, but strikes the Hudson at point where coal from the Pennsylvania mines via the Delaware and Hudson Canal, is usually sold at less price than elsewhere on the Hudson. The Rondout and Oswego railroad, now under construction from this point, intersects the Albany and Susqua- hama railroad, extending to the Erie road at Binghamton, and connecting with the N. Y. Central railroad at Syracuse, by which passengers and all railroad business from Hartford; Eastern Connecticut ; Rhode Island, and portion of Eastern Massachusetts. can reach all points beyond Syracuse, and indeed nearly the whole of the 'Great West," probably by 25 miles less distance than by any other 'existing route, and according to the contracts and arrangements. these connections will be effected in less than two years, and from present indications, it must be inferred that the question relative to double track from Millerton to Hartford, will soon claim the attention of the Conn. Western R. R. Go.
 A. NJ.