Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/64

 48 claims that clearly showed a disposition to realize as much as possible, and to mulct the company to the full extent of the law.

The most costly segment on the whole line was the Flushing cut required by a decision of the Commission of 1864. While the line of the road was unquestionably improved by the lowering of the grade, it entailed an extra expense upon the company of not less than $30,000, and the final cost of the one mile road from Main Street to Murray Street came to $87,000, a very large sum for that day.

With the North Shore road completed and in actual operation, many persons living to the eastward, especially in Huntington, began to encourage the directors to extend the road along the north shore as far east as Northport. In 1867 the Long Island R.R.'s North Shore Branch ended at Syosset, and the present Oyster Bay Branch at Glen Cove; the desire of these eastern communities for railroad contact with the outside world is therefore understandable.

In April 1866 a mass meeting had been held at Huntington and President Stearns of the New York & Flushing addressed the residents, giving them facts and figures on the proposed road. Stearns, it would appear, spoke favorably about the project with the officers of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, where his opinions as ex-superintendent of that road carried some weight. The result was that the Jersey railroad people offered to absorb one-half the stock of the proposed road if the Huntington people would subscribe for the other half. Over the summer of 1866 the stock was placed on sale and sold well. By November there was enough money on hand to employ surveyors to lay out the road. In December the subscribers were levied on for 5% to meet the minimum legal requirement necessary to formally incorporate a road. By March 1867 the requisite money had been subscribed, and the new company organized under the name of The North Side Railroad Company of Long Island. By the fall of 1867 the new road was ready to be let out to contract.

When it became virtually certain that the extension to Huntington would become a reality, Oliver Charlick, president of the Long Island R.R., shrewdly judged the time propitious for a move of his own. The proposed new road posed a dangerous threat to his Glen Cove branch, and would seriously lower the revenues at Syosset. He, therefore, with dramatic suddenness