page_title: History of the Long Island Rail Road
section_title: Gateway to Boston, 1832–1840s
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Long Island Rail Road / Gateway to Boston, 1832–1840s
context_page_description: The Long Island Rail Road is a railroad owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the U.S. state of New York. It is the oldest United States railroad still operating under its original name and charter. It consolidated several other companies in the late 19th century. The Pennsylvania Railroad owned the Long Island Rail Road for the majority of the 20th century and sold it to the State in 1966.
context_section_description: The LIRR's history stretches back to the Brooklyn and Jamaica Rail Road, incorporated on April 25, 1832 to build a ten-mile line from the East River in Brooklyn through the communities of Brooklyn, Bedford, and East New York to Jamaica. B&J engineer Major D. B. Douglass soon began planning for a continuation, forming part of an 11-hour combination rail and steamship route between New York City and Boston in cooperation with the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad and Boston and Providence Rail Road. The current all-land route (Shore Line) across southern Connecticut was considered impassable at the time due to numerous hills and river valleys. Douglass attracted wealthy New Yorkers and Bostonians, who received a charter for the Long-Island Rail-Road Company on April 24, 1834, with the right "to construct, and during its existence to maintain and continue a rail-road or rail-roads, with a single or double track, and with such appendages as may be deemed necessary for the convenient use of the same, commencing at any eligible point adjoining Southold Bay, in or near the village of Greenport, in the county of Suffolk, and extending from thence, on the most practicable route, through or near the middle of Long-Island, to a point on the water's edge in the village of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings, to be designated by the trustees of that village, and to a point on the water's edge in the village of Williamsburgh, in the said county of Kings, to be designated by the trustees of that village, and in like manner to construct, maintain and continue a branch rail-road from the said main road to Sag Harbor". It was also authorized to unite with the Brooklyn and Jamaica with the consent of that company. Since its plan was not to serve local traffic on Long Island, the LIRR chose not to serve existing communities along the shores of the island, but built straight down the middle of the island, which was largely uninhabited at the time and relatively free of grade crossings. This straight route was the quickest and the easiest to build, compared to the options of being built along the northern coast of Long Island, or being built in a north-central route following the Middle Country Road. The LIRR was organized on June 17, 1835, and Knowles Taylor was elected president.
  After one or more trial runs in February 1836, the Brooklyn and Jamaica opened its full line, roughly along the present Atlantic Avenue from South Ferry to 151st Street in Jamaica, on April 18, 1836, The B&J never operated its own trains, since that same day it was leased to the LIRR for $33,300 a year, a rather high amount for the time based on expected heavy traffic to Boston. Even before the B&J opened, the LIRR began planning a branch to the Grand Street Ferry in Williamsburg, leaving the B&J at Bedford, to avoid congestion in Brooklyn. The LIRR started to build the B&J's continuation beyond Jamaica immediately upon completion of the Brooklyn-Jamaica line, opening to Hicksville on March 1, 1837., Hicksville remained the terminal for the next four years due to the financial panic of 1837.The entire line was a single track, but the roadbed was graded for two tracks with a width of 28 feet., According to a February 24, 1837 announcement, a station called was called Westbury Hempstead was added. By June, the station was renamed Carle Place. At this location, passengers for Westbury and Hempstead would transfer to stagecoaches. As early as March 1837 a stop at the Union Course Race Track is listed, and as late as June 1837 the station is listed on timetables as Wyckoff's Lane. The September 8, 1837 timetable shows Pennsylvania Avenue and Connecticut Avenue (later Woodhaven Boulevard) as stations instead of Union Course. Because steam trains were not allowed in the City of Brooklyn, from 1836 to 1839, trains were pulled by horses between Brooklyn and Bedford. Also along the way to Hicksville, a station was added at Willow Tree.
  In May 16, 1836 supplement to the charter authorized a branch to Hempstead, and surveying was done for the branch in 1838., The short Hem
caption: Schedule for the first day of revenue operation to Greenport, July 29, 1844
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