Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 1 (1961).pdf/69

 54 the low lands between Greenwich and Henry Streets, and further grading was being done through the east end of the village towards Uniondale.

Great things were hoped from the new road. A large backward area of Kings County and an empty area south of Jamaica were to be developed and opened to commerce and settlement. The Bay Ridge docks were so favorably situated with reference to the Jersey Central and Lackawanna docks that the lion's share of bulk freight would pass over the new road. In March 1873 the directors of the road opened conversations with Oliver Charlick for permission to use the Long Island RR rails between East New York and Dunton, and with President Fox of the South Side for the use of the tracks between Dunton and Valley Stream.

To the surprise of all, the New York & Hempstead Plains RR in June 1873 announced that it had leased its entire road and project to the South Side RR for a period of 999 years. The New York & Hempstead was to retain its identity as a separate organization for a while yet, but once the Bay Ridge project was completed, it was likely to be merged in the South Side organization.

In the fall of 1873 when the New York & Hempstead project was at its peak and as certain of completion as any other commercial venture in the city, a completely unforeseen disaster struck a mortal blow to the whole project. In October 1873 a financial panic struck the market, and within a week the banking house of Jacob R. Shipherd & Co., owners of the South Side RR, collapsed in the general ruin. All work on the New York & Hempstead RR came to a halt, and the grandiose project of a great new system collapsed never to be revived. The short stretch of road that had been operating between Hempstead and Valley Stream, instead of being a major portion of a new railroad network, sank to the status of an unimportant branch, and its subsequent history dependent on the changing fortunes of the South Side RR.