Bennington banner and reformer. (Bennington, Vt.) 1903-19??, 1903-05-21
BIRTH OF A GREAT RAILROAD
The SsmiC Centennial of the Incorporation Of
The New York Central.

May II, 1903, marks the Fiftieth an
niyersary of the incorporation Of the
New York Central railroad; a fact in
teresting in the history Of the state Of
New York, for the consolidation of
the ten separate small roads into one
line, that formed a continuous route
from Albany on the east to Buffalo on
the vest was the beginning that made
possible the enormous industrial and
commercial development in the coun-
4 try contiguous to it.
The New York Central railroad
company is the consolidation of the
short lines known fifty years ago as,
Tie Albany and Schenectady, the
Schenectady and Troy, the Utica and
Schenectady, the Mohawk Valley, the
Syracuse and Utica, the Syracuse and
Utica Direct, the Rochester and syria
cuse, the Buffalo and Rochester; the
Rochester, Lockport and Niagara
Falls and the Buffalo and Lockport
railways
Articles of agreement we're filed May
! H. 1858, the first Board Of Directors
was elected July 9th, and the whole
line delivered to the new company
August l, 1853; insuripg better SER
vice, more complete connections be-
tween all points, and a more general
stimulus to development than was
possible under separate and rival cor
porations. This also opened the way
for the consolidation Of the New York
Central company with the Hudson
River railroad in 1869, which event
presaged the era of wonderful pro-
gress in the uudeveloped west, for it
created direct line from the ocean to
the inland seas, known as the great
lakes, and brought distant territories
into close connection with the sea-
board.
1t is far cry indeed from that
primitive little line Of the New York
Central Of fifty years ago to the great
Railroad of today with its twentieth
century limited, speeding like the
wind, carrying its passengers on lux
urious palace cars, over smooth road
beds, with a scarcely perceptible jar,
and fifty years OF progress could not
find better illustration than is re-
lated in an interesting letter of re-
miniscences written by Joshua WILDER
of Lockport, New York, describing
railroad travel in New York in 1899.
The writer says:-"We took the
cars on State street in Albany; these
cars we're drawn TO the city line by
horses, for locomotives we're not then
allowed in the city. The cars we're Of
the ancient pattern, entered by doors
on the side, with seats across the car,
the passengers facing each other, as
IN the old fashioned stage coaches.
1.-THE speed was tremendous about
twelve miles an hour. Arrived on the
ridge opposite Schenectady, our cars
were let down an incline plane, seeur-
ed TO a large rope cable, the other end |
being attached to fiat cars weighed |
with stone, which were drawn up on
parallel track as we went down. AT
Schenectady we changed cars and
travelled west to Utica, reaching there
in the afternoon. That was then the
end of railroad travel.
"a canal packet was boarded which |
landed us in Syracuse next morning. |
There another packet was taken for
Rochester, which we reached early the |
following day. A third packet brought |
us from Rochester to Lockport In six
teen hours.
"The time consumed in coming from
New York city to Lockport was near
ly four days, being on the move all
the time, except the night spent in AL
bany.
"Not long after the roads built from
Albany westward, and from Buffalo
eastward met, and a continuous line
was formed, but with manv changes of
cars and other inconvenience.
"Then the Hudson River road was
opened, and Buffalo and New York
became neighbors.
OF these lines the Albany and Schen-
ectady, which was chartered in 1926
as the Mohawk and Hudson, was
opened September II, 1881, and was
the first railroad built in the state of
New York, the name was changed in
l847, to 1.-THE Albany and Science
tady."