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94
BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES
III. TRIUMPH.
At last, after almost a score of years of desperate completion of the Michigan Southern Railroad and
struggling with adverse circumstances, the last spike
had been driven, and the New York and Erie Railroad
was completed from the Hudson River to Lake
Erie.
The personnel of the management in authority
when the great work was finished was as follows:
President, Benjamin Loder; Vice-President, Samuel
Marsh; Secretary, Nathaniel Marsh; Treasurer,
Thomas J. Townsend. Directors: William E.
Dodge, Shepherd Knapp, Marshall O. Roberts, John
J. Phelps, Homer Ramsdell, W. B. Skidmore, Daniel
Miller, Charles M. Leupp, Henry Suydam, jr.,
Cornelius Smith, Thomas W. Gale, Norman White,
Theodore Dekon.
General Superintendent, Charles
Minot; Chief Engineer, Horatio Allen.
These were
all residents of New York City except Homer Ramsdell,
who was from Newburgh.
The completion of the railroad was at that time
the most important event in the history of railroad
building.
This may be the better appreciated at
this day when it is known that but one other really
great railroad had been completed either in this
country or abroad, and that, singularly enough, was
in Russia—the line between St. Petersburg and
Moscow.
The present stupendous Pennsylvania
Railroad was then but a local line owned by the
State of Pennsylvania, extending from Philadelphia
to Hollidaysburg, at the eastern base of the Alleghany
Mountains.
New York was then connected
with Albany, Buffalo and Rochester merely by a
chain of ramshackle local roads of different gauges,
subsequently combined and fashioned into one uniform
system, which is that of the New York Central
and
Hudson River Railroad Company of to-day.
The Baltimore and Ohio, although the pioneer great
railroad line in America, had as yet no important
western connection, and was conspicuous only as
the protector of Baltimore's trade against the attraction
of southern markets, which were convenient by
Mississippi River navigation.
Hence the completion
of the New York and Erie Railroad marked the
first epoch in rail transportation of really national
importance. It made possible the uniting of western
commercial centers with New York City by quick
communication that had long been the dream of farseeing
minds, an event that speedily followed in the
the lines that naturally and necessarily grew out
of its construction.
It was the uniting of the Ocean
and the Lakes and the beginning of the present
great era of railroad supremacy in the financialand
commercial world.
Consequently, it was justly considered
to be worthy of national attention, and the
management of the Company arranged for giving
the very firstlong-distance railroad excursion party
ever known in this country, and made of it one
which has never been equalled in number of illustrious
and distinguished guests.
Invitations were sent to President Millard Fillmore
and his cabinet, and to numerous of the most
eminent statesmen and men of affairs. President
Fillmore accepted the invitation, as did Daniel
Webster, Secretary of State; John J. Crittenden,
Attorney-General; W. C. Graham, Secretary of the
Navy, and W. K. Hall, Postmaster-General.
The
names of other notable men who accepted and were
present will appear in the course of this chronicle.
When it was announced that the President and
four of the most distinguished of his official family
were to participate in the celebration of the opening
of the New York and Erie Railroad, the municipal
authorities of New York City joined with
the officers of the Company to make their stay in
and start from New York a public affair, to be celebrated
with appropriate honors and festivities. The
Presidential party were to be guests of the city, and
a committee of two—Alderman Robert J. Haws and
Assistant Alderman John B. Webb—were sent to
Washington to notify the President and to act as an
escort of the party from Washington to New York,
on behalf of the city government.
also arranged the following
PROGRAMME OF ARRANGEMENTS
The authorities
On the occasion of the arrival in this city of the President
of the United States and the members of the Cabinet, en
route to participate in the Celebration of the Opening of
the New York and Erie Railroad.
Hospitalities of the City lo the President and Cabinet.
The Special Committee appointed by the Common Council
of the City of New York to make the necessary arrangements