Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/62

 46 a sufficient amount to meet the need; in this way the roadbed inched forward laboriously at about three to five feet a day at the most.

By the end of June the Lawrence cut at Bayside where the road descends to the meadows was completed and all efforts were concentrated at the Flushing end. In July the finishing touches were put to the tunnel and tunnel portal just east of Main Street on the Flushing Institute grounds. The track through the tunnel and across Main Street giving a physical connection with the New York & Flushing R.R. was completed in August. During September the deep cut between Union and Bowne Streets was under way and masonry embankments of red freestone were installed.

By the close of the year 1865 the track was laid and graded from Bowne Street to the meadows. East of the meadows the right-of-way was graded and ballasted and part of the iron laid from Douglaston through to the Great Neck terminal. In November all work came to a halt for want of funds. The North Shore officers estimated at the time that an additional $20,000 would put the road in running order, and urged the property owners and wealthy residents of the Necks who would be convenienced by the road to subscribe and not leave the burden of financing the road to a few.

As soon as some additional money had been raised from stock levies and new subscriptions, the work, now so close to completion, was resumed. On January 22, 1866 laborers began work on the Union Street bridge in Flushing. Because of financial stringency the North Shore officials attempted to substitute a thirty foot bridge in place of one that would span the full width of the street. An outcry on the part of the property owners, encouraged by the local newspapers, arose, and the Trustees of the village remonstrated with the railroad people and prevailed upon them to restore the wide bridge that had been originally planned. A similar dispute over the size of the bridge at Bowne Street was amicably settled in the same manner.

While the Flushing cut was being brought to completion, finishing touches were being applied to the remaining line to the eastward; things went so well that an opening date of July 15 was set by the directors. On Friday, August 31, 1866, the first trial trip was made through from Flushing to Great Neck without