Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/63

 The North Shore R.R. mishap. As yet no depot buildings had been put up and the turntable at Great Neck had not yet been installed.

Almost two months passed quietly in leveling up the track and ballasting the rails, and then on Saturday, October 27, 1866, the directors threw open the road to public travel. At the beginning only one train ran per day in each direction, leaving Great Neck at 7:30 A.M. and Hunter's Point at 4 P.M. The maiden trip was made so quietly that the conductor had to dismount from the cars in the vicinity of 207th Street, Bayside, and let down the bars in the fence separating the Thomas C. Bell and Robert M. Bell farms, an action which moved the local paper to comment embarrassedly: "To get out and let down the bars must not be considered a characteristic of railroading on Long Island. As soon as the trains run regularly, the bars will be kept down."

During the season of 1867 the North Shore R.R. completed its road, erecting a few station buildings and finishing the Union and Bowne Streets bridges. In addition the service was increased to two trips a day each way, the new train leaving Hunter's Point at 9:30 A.M. and departing from Great Neck at 12:30 P.M. The North Shore R.R. from the first made no attempt to operate as an independent road; at the time of incorporation a contract had been concluded with the New York & Flushing R.R. to operate the six-mile line as an eastern extension of the Flushing railroad. The contract called for payment to the New York & Flushing of one-half the gross receipts of the North Shore R.R., and this agreement was signed on September 26, 1863.

The cost of the road had been far above any of the original estimates. In Flushing the various property owners had resisted each and every line proposed and it had become necessary to resort to the expensive process of appointing commissioners. Many residents along the line had made fair promises to the directors, who were led to the belief that these parties would willingly convey the small strip needed through their lands for a trifling consideration or for a fair compensation at most. In the end human nature asserted itself and these same persons were often the most extortionate and unreasonable in their demands. Only five landowners donated land or transferred it at small cost, and the total value of such property came to only $3,000, not including the Daniel Smith gift of the Great Neck station area. In all other cases the North Shore company was forced to meet