Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/14

 6 The route, as finally settled on, ran from Main Street, Flushing, in almost a direct line to Maurice Avenue, Winfield; then curved very slightly southwest and again moved in a straight line to just short of Newtown Creek, where the road curved west and followed the creek line closely to the East River. By following the Newtown Creek route the road served Calvary Cemetery, founded five years before, and skirted Maspeth and Winfield, both new villages founded the year before (1852).

On Tuesday, May 10, 1853, the first ground was turned over at Cedar Point, the upland on the Corona side of the Flushing meadows. Mr. Hoadley, the contractor, had several teams of men and horses grading through Elmhurst and Corona, and a deadline of October 1 was set for completion of grading. Orders were placed for fifty-six pound rail. In June and July a line of piles was driven from the Flushing Creek across the low, swampy meadowland to the Corona upland. The present level of the Flushing meadows is comparatively modern, filling having been commenced in 1916 and continued until fifteen to twenty feet of ashes and rubble have obliterated the former extensive swampland. The wide, reedy Flushing Creek bridged by the engineers of 1853 was a far broader and deeper stream than the sluggish brook that remains today.

In September commissioners appointed by the courts condemned the last parcels needed for the road and awarded damages to the few stubborn holdouts who had tried to extort fortunes for their lands. At the same time the rails arrived and were being distributed all along the right of way. On October 1, 1853 the piling was completed on schedule and word arrived that the two locomotives and six cars would be ready for delivery on November 1.

In mid-October the editor of the Flushing Journal undertook to walk the whole right-of-way as a public service and noted that the superstructure on the pilework was all ready for track laying; as far as the eye could see, cross ties and iron dotted the route. Carts and gangs of men were busy making cuts and using the dirt to bring low spots up to grade. From Greenpoint Avenue in Long Island City another line of pilework began and continued for half a mile westward into Hunter's Point.

In order to give those of its patrons who might want to go to Brooklyn access to that place, the company secured permission