The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-19

Hartford will benefit in the increased facilities for obtaining, iron and steel to be transformed into automobiles and pumps and heavy machinery; Williman- tic. the thread centre, Danbury, the seat of the hat manufacturing trade, and the many others, will all feel new impetus.
 But not only by the establishment of a huge freight transfer station at May brook will all this widespread improve ment be made manifest. Elaborate preparations have been made to bring the freight t-handling facilities of the New Haven road up to an extraordin- ary degree of efficiency through all It's miles of track. President Mellen not only had foresight enough to acquire the Ontario and Western road with it's lake port at Oswego and trackage rights that gave 1t voice in rate making as far west as Buffalo and a branch to the heart of the coal fields thus at a stroke of the pen shattering New England's dependence on railroads that had no interest in her territory, but he Is also effecting the improve ments necessary to handle the great stream of traffic that will continually pour in and out of the new gate way.
 In the territory between Hopewell Junction and Towners today five hum dred men may be seen hard at work plying shovel and pick. There the road is being double-tracked, and along the whole 34-mile stretch between Hopewell Junction and Danbury work men and engineers and surveyors will proceed laying out the new rails and eliminating grades. Toward Derby men are putting in the double track across the Housatonic River and the double-tracking will proceed along the whole stretch to Hawleyville. Before many months have passed the whole flow of freight traffic between Pough- keepsie and New Haven will course along double tracks. The bridge at Poughkeepsie is already double track ed as is all the Central New England road to Maybrook.
 While New England's new gateway is being opened, plans are also mak ing to relieve so far as possible the congestion in New England bound freight at New York City and to do away with the tedious necessity of the transfers to barges and the water hauls about Manhattan Island. At present the New Haven roads New York freight terminal at 129th Street and Harlem River, connects with the main line at New Rochelle by a two-track road. Bids are now in for the six tracking and the identification of this road. and elimination of all grade crossings on 1t and the erection of Sherzer roller-lift bridges over the Bronx and Pelham rivers.
 remarkable series of improvements whereby the New Haven road will be connected with the Pennsylvania, will do away largely with the water hauls about the city. When the plans are completed freights from the South and West will run through the Pennsyl- vania roads tunnel under the Hudson River. and below Manhattan's crowded streets, dipping under the East River strait again to Long Island City, Thence they will be hauled on the tracks of the New York Connecting Railway to Hell Gate where a bridge will be constructed over Wards Is- land connecting with the New Haven's freight terminal. The Harlem River New Rochelle improvements are ex- pected to be completed in two years, or six months or year before the Pennsylvania railroad tunnel will be finished.
 Other improvements all along the branches of the New Haven are so nu- merous that one can scarcely catalogue them. Four-track bridges are being built over the Mianus at Cos Cob. over the Saugatuck at Westport and over the Housatonic at Naugatuck. while another is being planned over the Con necticut River. All smaller bridges on the road are being strengthened Over the Connecticut River, at Warehouse Point, in northern Connecticut, the bridge which is 2,0OO feet in length, is being renewed and double-tracked and soon. with this improvement, there will be a complete double track line be- tween New Haven and Springfield. On the Berkshire Division all the light bridges between Bridgeport and Pitts field have been rebuilt. to permit the use of heavier locomotives. Between Ansonia and Waterbury much double track work has been undertaken and more is planned. Finally the freight facilities at Hartford are being In creased by the erection of enormous freight houses.
 most important improvement has been the fourtracking of the New