Chemin de fer

1934 · 87046 — New York: The Osborne Company Printer 1934. Presumed First Edition First printing. Pamphlet. Good. The format is approximately 5.25 inches by 7.625 inches. 15 1 pages including covers. Two footnotes. Illustrations. Map. RARE Surviving Copy. Cover has some wear and soiling. 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. 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. 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 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 building along the northern coast of Long Island or in a north-central route following the Middle Country Road. The LIRR was organized on June 17 1835 and Knowles Taylor was elected president. The Long Island Rail Road reporting mark LI often abbreviated as the LIRR is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. With an average weekday ridership of 354800 passengers in 2016 it is the busiest commuter railroad in North America. It is also one of the world's few commuter systems that runs 24/7 year-round. It is publicly owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority which refers to it as MTA Long Island Rail Road. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then it is the oldest railroad in the United States still operating under its original name and charter. The Long Island Rail Road Company was chartered in 1834 to provide a daily service between New York and Boston via a ferry connection between its Greenport New York terminal on Long Island's North Fork and Stonington Connecticut. This service was superseded in 1849 by the land route through Connecticut that became part of the New York New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The LIRR refocused its attentions towards serving Long Island in competition with other railroads on the island. In the 1870s railroad president Conrad Poppenhusen and his successor Austin Corbin acquired all the railroads and consolidated them into the LIRR. <br /> Electric operation began in 1905. The Osborne Company [Printer?] unknown