Vincent Francis Seyfried

“ Their pleasantries, their growlings, their exclusive privileges of finding fault with everything that ran counter to their feelings for the time being—and all their agreeable and disagreeable peculiarities have been swept away at a jerk by the broom of reform. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As a result, the road was producing a profit only at the price of an ever-increasing backlog of deferred maintenance. As the Civil War wore on, labor became scarcer and more costly than in the years before the war, but this scarcely explained the failure to clean the windows of the cars and wash out the floors, particularly in an age when spitting and expectorating of tobacco juice were commonplaces of American life. ”

“ Operating the trains became so hazardous that speeds were reduced to ten miles an hour. A traveler during Christmas of 1864 reported that the 5 P.M. train from Hunter's Point reached Flushing at 7:30, and that the following day the 2 P.M. train limped into Flushing at 5 P.M.
Feeling that the condition of the Flushing railroad was now a menace to the public safety, Flushingites appointed a committee to call upon President Ebbitt and Superintendent J. O. Steams of the road. ”

“ A regular rider indicted the road for old, dirty and unsafe cars, insufficient passenger cars, no smoking cars, bulky packages permitted in the trains, and want of attention to the needs of the people. ”

“ The road was seriously underpowered from the beginning, with the New York and the Flushing the sole locomotives on the road from 1854 to 1864. On March 25, 1864 a third engine arrived from Danforth, Cooke & Co., which was named the Manhasset. ”

“ Litchfield must have changed his mind about the value of these two Williamsburgh routes for he made no effort to avail himself of them. Instead, we find him penning a letter on October 15, 1860 to the Common Council, asking for permission to lay double tracks down Union Avenue, Brooklyn, to Greenpoint Avenue, west along Greenpoint Avenue to Franklin Street and south down Franklin Street and Kent Avenue to the Broadway Ferry. Steam operation would end at Newtown Creek and the cars would be pulled through Brooklyn by horses. ”