Re: (rshsdepot) Excellent 1898 western Long Island transportation map

[Seth Bramson <sbramson_@_bellsouth.net>]

Jim Guthrie wrote:

>>       What I find fascinating with the map is its confirmation that the
>>route of the Central Railroad of Long Island, from Creedmor to Flushing,
>>    
>>
>had
>  
>
>>already been abandoned by then.  I had the following to say about this
>>    
>>
>line in the
>  
>
>>Seventh Edition of the New York Walk Book, for which I served as editor:
>>    
>>
>
>Not exactly true, AFAIK. The track remained for some years -- maybe until a
>WW I scrap drive. The deep cut through the terminal morraine was filled in
>when the Grand Central Parkway was built. Trees and thick fines covered the
>area, and Robert Moses' engineers really didn't have any idea how deep the
>cut was until they started dumping dirt into it. It took far longer (and far
>more dirt) than expected.
>
>And the story goes that as they started to fill, there were rattlesnakes
>that emerged from the pile -- although the last LI rattlers were reported
>extinct in the 1860s, there were lots of 'em escaping into the neighborhood
>and Moses' people quickly devised some sort of way to capture them before
>panic in the then-growing neighborhoods of Queens even discovered the
>creatures. The story was told in relation to Moses' later efforts to hide
>the fact that the ocean was breaking through under the parkway at Jones
>Beach which he was promoting the idea of a parkway the length of Fire Island
>the "Stabilize and Protect" the later.
>
 >>>Just too damn bad one of those rattlers didn't nail that stinking 
no-good corrupt bastard Moses, that GM paid off piece of hypocritical 
garbage.

>
>  
>


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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