Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/120

 104 largely double-tracked as far as Woodside, and the two lines from there to Flushing gave the effect of a double track. From Flushing eastward the whole line was single-track but with many turnouts.

At Long Island City the line approached the river between the present Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Avenues, then curved sharply south to the depot at Fifty-first Avenue and Second Street, directly opposite and at right angles to the Long Island R.R. station. Here were located numerous side tracks, freight spurs and a turntable. The Hunter's Point station building had been erected in October and November 1869, and embraced an iron structure 190 × 48 feet long, with a car shed 77 × 54 feet. Covered passageways led to the ferries and to the Long Island R.R. depot nearby. When the Central R.R. became part of the North Side system, Central trains were also accommodated here.

Aside from the College Point car shops, which we have described earlier, the next important facility to the east was in Central Junction on the east bank of Flushing Creek. The depot building was located at the corner of Sanford Avenue and Delong Street. Behind it was a large car shed, and engine roundhouse with turntable and sidings. From the yard tracks at this point a spur led northwest, crossed Flushing Creek on its own trestle and connected with the Woodside Branch track and the Flushing Bay dock spur on the open meadows.

Moving eastward on the Central R.R., now the mainline, the next siding was located between 164th Street and Fresh Meadow Lane. At Hinsdale (Floral Park) the Central R.R. crossed the Long Island R.R. by means of an embankment and iron bridge, twenty feet above the surrounding ground level, and supported on either side on stone abutments. A turnout was located just east of Hinsdale station. At Garden City station itself a turnout had been installed to accommodate the Sunday excursion trains which brought prospective buyers from the city during the 1874 and 1875 seasons. At the Hempstead depot there was another turntable and engine house.

On the long lonely stretch eastward from Garden City, the next turnout was located at Island Trees station (Jerusalem Avenue). Four miles to the east one came to Bethpage Junction, where a spur led northeast to the brick yards just north of the present Bethpage Park. From Farmingdale the road struck