Roads and Rails and Canals
Bridges
• Union Bridge from Lansingburgh to Waterford
• 112th Street Bridge from Lansingburgh to Van Schaick Island, Cohoes
• Grant’s Hollow
Road Corporations
• Lansingburgh Turnpike Company
• Troy and Lansingburgh Plank Road Company
• Schaghticoke and Lansingburgh Turnpike Road Company
• Lansingburgh, Brunswick and Pittstown Plank Road Company
Railroads
A trolley line connecting Lansingburgh and Troy had been proposed as early as 1836, but not until 1861 was such a line built.
CHAP. 372.
AN ACT To provide for the construction of a rail-road from Lansingburgh to Troy.
Passed May 19, 1836.
The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
§ 1. All persons who shall become stockholders pursuant to this act, shall be and they are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, for the term of fifty years, by the name of “The Lansingburgh and Troy Rail-Road Company,” for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a railroad between the village of Lansingburgh and the city of Troy, commencing in the village of Lansingburgh, and running thence to the city of Troy, on such route as the majority of the directors of said company shall determine to be best adapted to the public accommodation; and may take, transport, carry and convey property and persons upon the same by the power and force of steam, of animals or any mechanical power, or of any combination of them; but such rail-road shall not be constructed on or contiguous to the present public road between Troy and Lansingburgh.
§ 2. If the said corporation shall not, within two years from the passage of this act, commence the construction of the said road, and expend at least the sum of five thousand dollars thereon, and shall not within four years from the passage of this act, finish the said road and put the same in operation, then the said corporation shall thenceforth forever cease, and this act shall be null and void.
§ 3. The capital stock of the said corporation shall be forty thousand dollars, which shall be divided into shares of fifty dollars each; which shares shall be deemed personal property, and be transferred in such manner as the said corporation shall in its by-laws direct; and Daniel Gardner, Abraham Van Tuyl, Horace Turner, Ebenezer W. Walbridge, George Wail, Jacob Merritt, and Jacob C. Lansing, shall be commissioners to receive subscriptions and distribute the stock; and the books for the subscription of the stock shall be opened in the city of Troy and village of Lansingburgh according to the provisions of the act hereinafter mentioned.
§4. The corporation hereby created shall possess and enjoy all the privileges and provisions which are granted to and made in favor of the corporation created by the act entitled “An act to provide for the construction of a rail-road from Attica to Buffalo,” passed May 3d, 1836, and shall be subject to all the conditions and restrictions which by the act aforesaid, are imposed upon the corporation therein referred to, except as herein provided.
§ 5. Any application to be made to a vice-chancellor under this act, shall be made to the vice-chancellor of the circuit in which the land proposed to be taken shall be situated. All notices and meetings required in the act above referred to, shall be published and held in the county in which the said rail-road hereby authorized is to be made.
§ 6. The said corporation may receive a sum not exceeding five cents per mile for the transportation of any passenger and his ordinary baggage.
§ 7. That part of the rail-road to be constructed by the corporation hereby created, within the city of Troy, shall be subject to the determination and designation of the common council of the city of Troy, in respect to the route and grade of said road.
Laws of the State of New York: Passed at the Fifty-Ninth Session of the Legislature. Albany, NY: E. Croswell, 1836. 560-561.
TROY & LANSINGBURGH RAILROAD. Under the act authorizing the formation of railroad companies, passed April 2, 1850, the Troy & Lansingburgh Railroad Company was organized. The articles of association, signed August 20, 1860, were filed September 6, that year. The purpose of the company’s organization was to construct, maintain and operate a railroad “from some point in the village of Lansingburgh to some point in the city of Troy.” Capital stock, $100,000; shares, $1,000; each $100. On August 20, 1860, the common council permitted the company to construct a single railroad track from the north bounds of the city through River Street to Adams, through Adams to Second, through Second to Greenbush Highway to a point near the bridge across the Wynants Kill. On February 19, 1861, the first officers of the company were elected: Thomas Symonds, president; John A. Griswold, vice-president; Miles Beach, secretary and treasurer; and William Barton, engineer. On Monday afternoon, July 15, that year, the work of constructing the road was begun at the north side of the Union Railroad crossing, on River Street, opposite the Manufacturers’ Bank; William Barton, the engineer, first formally breaking the ground with a pick. On August 16, the collection of tolls at the gate on the plank road, between Troy and Lansingburgh, was discontinued. The first car ran on the road on August 29. It was drawn by one horse, and furnished with a fare box. A few days thereafter six cars were running on the road. In November, eighty trips were made daily. The completion of the road, in 1862, was a matter of considerable pride to the people of Troy, it being accomplished before the construction of a street railway in Albany. In the summer of 1862, the road was extended to Waterford. The length of the road, mostly two tracks, from the terminus at the Wynants Kill to the one in Waterford, is 6 613/1000 miles. The cars on the line are painted red. The roads of the Troy & Cohoes, the Lansingburgh & Cohoes, and the Waterford & Cohoes railroad companies are leased and operated by the Troy & Lansingburgh Railroad Company. Its depots and stables are at the east side of the Union bridge, Lansingburgh; on the north side of the road, on Simmons’ Island, Cohoes; at Nos. 103 and 105 River Street, and on the southwest corner of River and Division streets, Troy. The general office is in the building, No. 205 River Street. The company employs 206 men, owns 95 cars, and 468 horses. In 1885, the company carried on the different lines 5,220,315 passengers. The officers of the company are William Kemp, president; Charles Cleminshaw, vice-president; and Joseph J. Hagen, secretary and treasurer.
Weise, Arthur James. The City of Troy and Its Vicinity. Troy, NY: Edward Green, 1886. 285-286.
“Our Horse Railroads—Interesting Facts.” Troy Daily Whig. January 31, 1868: 4 cols 3-5.
MIDDLEBURGH ST. AND OAKWOOD Cemetery.—Commencing to-morrow, and during suspension of cars on Troy and Lansingburgh R. R., the Lansingburgh local trains, excepting trains leaving Union Depot at 8 A. M. and 1.35 P.M., and those leaving Lansingburgh at 9.10 A.M.,1.45 and 8.32 P. M., will make regular stops at Middleburgh st. Fare between Union Depot and Middleburgh st., six cents, or package of twenty tickets for one dollar. Will also stop regularly at Oakwood Cemetery. Fare between Union Depot and Oakwood, eight cents, or package of twenty tickets for one dollar and forty cents.—Troy, Nov. 7, 1872. n7tfns C. W. MOSELY, Superintendent.
Troy Daily Times. November 8, 1872: 3 col 5.
UNTIL FURTHER notice trains will run between Troy Union Depot, Middleburgh st., Oakwood Cemetery and Lansingburgh stations (escepting the trains indicated with a *, which will not stop at Middleburgh st., and Oakwood Cemetery), as follows:
Leave Troy. Leave Lansingburgh.
6::40 A. M. 6:30 A. M.
*8:00 A. M. 7:30 A. M.
9:30 A. M. 8:30 A. M.
10:30 A. M. *9:10 A. M.
12:10 P. M. 10:00 A. M.
*1.35 P. M. 10:50 A. M.
2:30 P. M. 12:20 P. M.
3:15 P. M. *1:46 P. M.
4:00 P. M. 2:50 P. M.
5:10 P. M. 3:30 P. M.
6:15 P. M. 4:15 P. M.
7:15 P. M. 5:30 P. M.
8:00 P M. 6:30 P. M.
9:30 P. M. 7:30 P. M.
8:15 P. M.
*8:32 P. M.
9:45 P. M.
A train will leave Union Depot Saturday nights at 11 o’clock.
C. W. MOSELY, Superintendent.
Troy, Nov. 15, 1872.
Troy Daily Whig. November 23, 1872: 3 col 5.
The Lansingburgh Depot on the Troy and Boston railroad line
Intersections of roads with the Troy and Boston railroad line
• Flynn’s Crossing (AKA See’s Crossing and Irish Crossing)
Canals