Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/45

The Flushing R. R. Goes Down Hill field withdrew from the management of the Flushing road as of December 31, iB6O. Although no reason for the resignation of Mr. Litchfield was given, it is likely that one of his other railroad interests was at that time requiring his close attention, namely, the organization of the Brooklyn Central & Jamaica R.R., newly organized to take over the operation of the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island R.R., which the Long Island was about to abandon as of September 1861. Management of the Flushing road was now entrusted to two Flushing residents, Simon R. Bowne and Spencer H. Smith.

With the year 1861, important developments were taking place at Hunter's Point that would profoundly affect the Flushing R.R. The Long Island R.R., which had been operating into Brooklyn since 1836, had been, for more than a decade, the target of mounting criticism from home owners and store keepers for running steam locomotives along Atlantic Avenue. In 1859 the property owners had finally gotten a bill through the Legislature outlawing the use of steam within the city limits. The railroad, cut off from its old terminus, looked about and finally fixed on a substitute deep water terminus at Hunter's Point.

In 1859 work on the new road from Jamaica to Hunter's Point was begun, and in 1860 large new construction was undertaken at Hunter's Point. All the land on the south side of Borden Avenue was purchased; piles were driven out to the bulkhead line and scows laden with rock fill dumped their loads to create ten acres of new land in all. The effect of all this effort was to produce a new railroad yard and depot area north of, and immediately adjacent to, the Flushing Railroad's right of way and Long Dock. By August of 1860 the new Long Island R.R. depot was completed; it was 800 feet long and built of heavy timber with a substantial slate roof. In May 1861 railroad service was begun over the new road into the large new terminal.

The opening of the Long Island R.R. depot, with its ample accommodations and considerable size, threw into the shade the Flushing R.R.'s facilities, despite the great improvements that Oliver Charlick had made in the summer of 1859. The managers of the Flushing road, Messrs. Bowne and Smith, suggested to their directorate that the new facilities could easily accommodate the Flushing trains as well as the Long Island trains and that maintenance of duplicate facilities was costly and wasteful.