Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/108

 92 purchased near Fulton Street to allow room for a turntable and engine house. During August the whole Branch was surveyed by Mr. D. Denton, assisted by Engineers Ebenezer Kellum Jr. and Samuel B. Mersereau Jr. The grading was done under the supervision of Mr. Lewis H. Cowles and the track work under Mr. G. W. Breas. Because of the shortness of the Branch, the laying of the track took very little time. One month later, on September 10, 1872, the track layers finished the line into Hempstead.

It is worth noting at this point that the right-of-way of 1872 in the vicinity of the present Garden City wye is not precisely the alignment of today. In Stewart's day the Branch left the through line at a point just east of the present wye and described a wide curve to the southeast to a point midway between the present Magnolia Street and Washington Avenue, Garden City. The track then curved back, crossing the present intersection of Garden and Magnolia Streets and joined the present right-of-way at Meadow Street. This old roadbed remained in use till 1893–4 when the building of the present West Hempstead Branch caused the realignment of the whole wye.

So confident was the Central R.R. management of immediate operation that the first timetable was issued in mid-August, announcing trains as of September 1. The day came and went and the date was then moved up to September 16. The initial timetable called for eight trains daily each way with through runs between Hempstead and Hunter's Point. The running time was set to vary from forty-two minutes to fifty-eight minutes, a shorter running time than that on the Long Island or South Side roads. The rate of fare for transient passengers was pegged at the same level as the two competing roads.

When September 16 arrived and still no trains were in evidence, people began to wonder aloud; a press release from A.T. Stewart himself explained that some defects had been observed in the construction of the bridges, and that he was withholding permission to open the road until everything was in order. Exasperating as these delays may have been, the time was not wholly wasted for work was moving slowly forward again on the Babylon extension. Since March 1872 the contractors for grading the line had been at work. Over the summer Mr. Wellwood of the Breslau project and Mr. Stewart had discussed three dif-