Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/28

12 The first timetable seems to have set the pattern for the first few years of operation; there were three morning trains departing at 6, 8, and 10 A.M. respectively, and three afternoon trains at 1, 4 and 6:30 P.M. Trains left fromboth the Flushing and the Hunter's Point terminals at these hours and passed each other at Winfield. The average running time was thirty-five minutes. To test the track and the capabilities of the new road, the superintendent on July 18 made a non-stop speed run from Flushing to Hunter's Point dock in eleven minutes; four and one-half minutes were spent by the passengers in transferring to the boat, and twelve minutes on the run to Fulton Ferry, making twenty-seven and one-half minutes in all, a record that would be hard to beat today!

When the road first began operations, a non-stop run between Flushing and New York might very well be commonplace because of the extremely thin settlement along the line. What we know today as the Corona area had been a farm until May 1853 when a group of speculators incorporated the West Flushing Land Co., bought out five farms, and staked out building lots and graded streets. In the first few years there were only a handful of inhabitants and therefore few commuters. On weekends special excursion trains carried prospective home-owners, lured by the promotional literature of the speculators.

The National Course stop at the present National Avenue originated heavy traffic on racing days, but next to nothing at other times of the year. Moving westward, the next stop was at Broadway, Newtown (Elmhurst). This was a very old and prosperous village of consequence and the railroad depended on it for way passengers. Half a mile farther was the Winfield depot at Sixty-ninth Street. This too was a developers' project started in 1853 and incapable of furnishing any regular traffic for many years to come. The developers, Andrews & Kendall, built the station building in July 1854 to accommodate the excursions which were run here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The final way station was located at Penny Bridge, where Laurel Hill Boulevard crossed Newtown Creek and became Meeker Avenue. At that date Laurel Hill Boulevard was one of the high roads leading into Queens and carried a fairly heavy traffic. In addition, the Roman Catholic Church had opened in 1848 the large new Calvary Cemetery on the slope to the west