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THE STORY OF ERIE 175
With these efforts Jay Gould had for the time to City, and large tracts of real estate had been pur
rest content in the matter of a Chicago line.
chased west of the Bergen tunnel, for the handling
of crude oil in bulk. The Paterson and Newark
According to his report for the year ending Sep- Railroad, which was begun in the interest of the
tember 30, 1869, Jay Gould had not been idle or Pennsylvania Railroad, had been secured to the Erie,
negligent in looking after the local interests of the and it was to be extended from Newark to the main
Erie. He had purchased for the Company a half line of the Erie at the tunnel. The Newburgh and
interest in Abram S. Hewitt's Trenton Rolling Mills, New York- Railroad, from near Turner's to Vail's
where steel-capped rails were being rolled by the Gate, where it joined the Newburgh Branch, was
thousands of tons, and which were to be put down completed, giving the Erie direct and short connecon
the road in place of the rotten iron rails. He tion between New York and Newburgh. Thirty
had begun to do away with the old bridges along miles of new double track were completed and
the line, all of which were of wood, and replace them opened. Large ear shops were erected at Buffalo.
with iron bridges. The worthless old locomotives Wood had been discarded for coal as fuel, and the
of the Company were being consigned to the scrap Company had an arrangement by which its coal was
pile, and new ones of improved make provided. Pal- delivered at Waverly at cost. "The dilapidated,
ace or drawing-room coaches were being added to unwholesome, insufficient quarters of the Company
the day trains. A jjerpetual lease was made of the in the Erie building in West Street had been for-
Jefferson Railroad, between Hawley and Honesdale, saken for the commodious and magnificent offices
Pa., which brought the Erie system into direct con- fitted up in the Company's Grand Opera House at
nection with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com- Twenty-third Street and Eighth Avenue." The
pany's coal road, insuring to the Erie a new coal Atlantic and Great Western Railroad had been
traffic of about 2,000,000 tons a year. The Dela- leased, and profitable traffic arrangements made with
ware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton and the Ohio
having defaulted in an agreement by which the Erie and Mississippi Railroads, which gave the Erie direct
was to transport from Great Bend, Pa., to Buffalo, and unbroken connection between New York and
N. Y., large quantities of coal from the mines of that Cincinnati, Cleveland, and St. Louis. All the eastcompany,
Gould had entered into an agreement with bound business of the Union Steamboat Company's
the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company by which fleet of twenty-two steamboats had been secured by
the Erie was to construct a railroad from Carbondalc connection at Buffalo.
to Susquehanna, over which and thence over the :' Prior to my becoming executive officer," said
Erie main line to Buffalo the Canal Company was to President Gould in his report, " the Board voted to
ship a large amount of coal at profitable rates to the give the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Corn-
Erie. Another coal connection had been made at pany substantial aid in the shape of a purchase of
Waverly with the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, $5,000,000 of their firstmortgage bonds. Since I
by which seventy-five cars of coal were being shipped became President we have paid for and taken up the
over the Erie daily to Buffalo. The Pavonia Ferry bonds. This road is a very important connection,
had been doubled in capacity by the opening of its as it will open to us the heart of the manufacturing
route between Twenty-third Street, New York, and district of New England."
the Jersey City terminus. River frontage of 2,000 (But now, after a generation of patient waiting,
feet and an area of 60 acres had been purchased at the jilted Erie has yet to receive even one respon-
Weehawken, at a cost of $1,600,000, for convenience sivc throb from that $5,000,000 heart.— Author.)
in handling and storing coal and petroleum, and for " In the interests of the cotton traffic of the lower
elevator purposes. In the same vicinity 80 acres had Mississippi," the report declared, " the Erie has
been purchased, and a live-stock depot reestablished, made a close_ alliance with the Narragansett Steam-
Extensive machine shops were building at Jersey ship Company, whose fine steamships connect the