Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/155

 Collapse of the Poppenhusen System disaster occurred on March 16, 1882, when the Little Neck drawbridge collapsed into the water, ending all traffic on the road. It was discovered that the A-shaped frame which supported the bridge, had given way while the bridge tender was in the act of opening the draw for a boat, and the bridge had completely collapsed. When the court and the new receiver, Thomas H. Messenger Jr., heard of this blow, the court instructed Messenger to discontinue the running of trains on and after March 31, 1882.

Faced with the prospect of constant future expenses to keep the road running, and always at a loss, the trustees met and resolved to salvage whatever they could on their investment by selling it to the Long Island R.R. After considerable dickering on the price, Austin Corbin was at last induced to buy out the derelict road in April, 1882. Thus, after fifteen years of semi-independent existence, the corporate identity of the North Shore R.R. was extinguished. Two years later, Corbin quietly conveyed the old North Shore to the Long Island City & Flushing on October 2, 1884, and the Long Island City & Flushing itself was merged into the Long Island R.R. on April 2, 1889. In this way the whole rail empire of the Poppenhusens became submerged in the Long Island R.R.

The passage of seventy-five years has done little to alter the situation until the mid-Thirties. Most of the old Flushing & North Side R.R. is still operated today in full from Long Island City to Great Neck, with a later extension to Port Washington, but the competition of the subway with its five-cent fare forced the disappearance during the depression of the Whitestone Branch on February 15, 1932. The Central R.R. between Flushing and Creedmoor was never revived. A valiant attempt was made to re-activate the line in 1914–1916, but this was defeated by the increasing cost of materials in World War I and a franchise dispute with New York City. Part of the segment between Creedmoor and Floral Park still remains today years after the abandonment of the Rifle Range in 1910. Of late years the spur serves largely to bring coal to the State asylum and to service one or two coal yards. In 1949 the track was torn up between Hillside Avenue and Winchester Boulevard for a garden apartment development, and in 1955–56, houses were built on the right-of-way for two or three blocks east of Winchester Boulevard. The remainder seems destined to last for the immediate future.