Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/32

 16 to another ferryboat of another company on the same day, the railroad managers felt that no particular blame attached to them.

These troubles of the road were as nothing compared with the winter of 1856. On Saturday, January 5 of that year a howling snow storm struck New York City. By evening the storm had drifted over the road and filled the cuts, especially the section between Newtown and West Flushing stations. When the storm subsided on Sunday the superintendent fired up the locomotives, hired every able-bodied man he could find and attacked the drifts. On Monday morning over 100 men with shovels and the two engines fitted with nose plows returned to the battle and at sundown reached Newtown. In the meantime a force of men from Hunter's Point started to work and on Tuesday the locomotives were able to steam into the river terminus.

Even this herculean effort was only partly useful because the Island City found itself unable to navigate through the immense fields of ice. Hasty arrangements were made with the Brooklyn City R.R. to convey passengers from the Brooklyn side of Newtown Creek down to the various Brooklyn ferries. In practice, this arrangement pleased no one, for the Brooklyn City R.R. sleighs (running from Newtown Creek to the Bushwick Creek railhead) charged 10¢ extra, even though the tickets of the Flushing R.R. specified through passage to New York. The connection was not always prompt even with the extra fare and bitter letters were penned about the ladies and young children perishing of cold in some snow banks at Hunter's Point. At this early period there were no private houses and no commercial establishments in Long Island City, and the open shanty at the depot provided the sole shelter against the elements.

As for the 10¢ extra fare, there was no doubt that the Flushing R.R. management was to blame. When the Brooklyn City rails had reached Bushwick Creek in the fall of 1854, negotiations were begun to exchange passengers between the two roads, since the Flushing R.R. owned the turnpike down to Bushwick Creek (Franklin Street). The stumbling block in the talks had proved to be the amount at which the Brooklyn City R.R. would take Flushing R.R. tickets. Unable to reach an agreement, on what proportion of ticket revenue would go to each, the negotiations had fallen through. The unexpected advent of the