Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/10

2 impulse toward a rail project arose in the early 1840's and gradually gained momentum as line after line began to be built and successfully operated in and around New York City. The Flushing Journal took up the project as part of its campaign for municipal improvement, and regularly presented to its readers accounts of successful railroad schemes in towns of comparable size and situation.

The railroad project was not without its opponents, however. At the very time that a Flushing Railroad was first being seriously discussed, the plank roads were enjoying a surprising revival. Half a century before, in 1801, the first plank road was built from Flushing to Brooklyn. Thereafter, others were built at intervals, but in the short period 1850–1855, plank roads again sprang into public favor as a form of investment, and several new roads of this type appeared in Queens County. For a few years an active debate went on among Flushingites as to the relative advantages of a plank road vs. a railroad.

Gradually, the advocates of rail travel prevailed. It was argued that stage coaches on plank roads were limited as to size and uncomfortable to ride in, and the road itself precluded fast travel. The railroad, on the other hand, offered comfort, space, speed, and prestige to the community that boasted it. The completion of the Burlington & Mt. Holly R.R. in New Jersey in 1849 provided the first statistics on the probable cost of a Flushing R.R. The Jersey road was of comparable length and served a similar territory. It boasted two each of engines, coaches, freight cars and flat cars, and cost in all $90,000 to build and $12 a day to operate. The same engineer went over the Flushing ground and estimated that a road could be built for $121,000, and that the total time of travel, including ferry passage, would be only 23 minutes. There were at that time roughly 80 to 100 commuters daily to New York; if these paid 12½¢ a trip, the full daily running cost of about $13.50 a day would be earned, with a comfortable surplus for maintenance. Way passengers and freight would increase the profit further. It was pointed out that the trunk railroads out of New York had greatly developed building and settlement in the suburbs and the same could be expected from a road through Queens.

In January 1851 proponents of the railroad scheme drafted articles of association and began preparations to sell stock. In