page_title: History of Norwalk, Connecticut
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: History of Norwalk, Connecticut / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture caption: "Part of Main Street, Norwalk, Conn.", published in 1855 Description: "Published in "Ballou's Pictorial" 1855. Dimensions of the engraved area, in inches, minus margins is 5 1/4 x 9 1/4."
context_page_description: The history of Norwalk, Connecticut ranges from pre-contact cultures and Native Americans to the 21st century.
context_section_description: Sheffield Island Light:
  In 1826, agents of the U.S. Treasury Department (which was in charge of lighthouses at that time), after surveying various sites in the Norwalk Islands, decided that the western end of Sheffield Island was the most suitable spot for a light to mark Norwalk Harbor.
  . . .
  With the end of the Civil War, shipping traffic in the harbor increased, and in 1867 Congress appropriated funds to build a new lighthouse and keeper's quarters.
  . . .
  
  The new structure was two-and-a-half stories tall and built out of granite blocks. At the front end of the roof, a cast-iron lantern tower rose to forty-six feet. A fourth-order Fresnel lens, which produced alternating red and white flashes and was installed in the old tower in 1858, was moved to the new lighthouse.
  In 1836 the central area around Wall Street and the Green was incorporated as the Borough of Norwalk with an area slightly smaller than the present day First taxing district.
  In January 1849 the New York and New Haven Railroad began operating between its nominal terminal cities
  through Norwalk. In 1852 the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad connected Norwalk with Danbury. The South Norwalk station was used by both railroads. The first major U.S. railroad bridge disaster occurred in Norwalk in 1853. The engineer, Edward Tucker, carelessly neglected to check the open drawbridge signal as his one hundred and fifty passenger train approached the Norwalk River.
  He only realized the bridge was up within about four hundred feet of the gap, which proved to be insufficient to stop the train. The engineer and the fireman jumped from the train and then the locomotive, two baggage cars (the latter also a car for smokers) and two and a half passenger cars (the third car split when the train finally came to a stop) went plunging off the tracks into the river. Forty-six people drowned or were crushed to death, and an approximately thirty people were more or less severely injured.  Tucker, who survived, never overcame his feelings of guilt, and five years later committed suicide. By 1872 the NY&NE merged with the Hartford and New Haven Railroad to form the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad which lasted until its merger with Penn Central in 1969. The Housatonic Railroad leased the D&N in 1887. The Housatonic was then purchased by the NYNH&H in 1892 and the D&N became the Danbury Branch of that railroad.
  Norwalk is reputed to have been one of the stops on the northward land route of the Underground Railroad. Several trunk lines emanated from New York City, a central point in the escape route, which one passing through Greenwich, Darien, Norwalk, and Wilton. Several era-houses still standing have secret chambers or passageways that could have been used to hide runaways but no documentation exists that identifies one particular house or even one area. However, tradition states that a house at 69 East Avenue was Norwalk's stop on the Railroad.
caption: "Part of Main Street", 1855 engraving in Baillou's Pictorial
exif: {}