 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Locale | Lewiston, NY |
| Dates of operation | 1836–1855 |
| Successor | New York Central Railroad (of 1853) |
The Lewiston Railroad Company was an early railroad in Lewiston, NY, running to Niagara Falls, NY. The railroad eventually became a part of the New York Central Railroad system.
On May 6, 1836, The Lewiston Rail-Road Company was incorporated in New York State. [1] [2] [3] Its board of directors were Benjamin Barton, Bates Cooke, Lothrop Cooke, Joshua Fairbanks, Oliver Grace, Calvin Hotchkiss, Seymour Scovell, Leonard Shepard, Jacob Townsend, and Amos S. Tryon. [4] The railroad was first built to connect the town of Lewiston, NY, with Lockport, NY, via the then existing Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad. The Lewiston Railroad opened for operation in 1837.
The railroad first surveyed its route in 1835. The line started from the Niagara River wharves and the American Hotel in Lewiston, made a 'U' to climb from the river bank and followed along the streets heading east through Lewiston proper. The line then crossed several farms, climbing the Niagara Escarpment to the top of Indian Hill to meet with the Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad at a point just west of the Tuscarora Reservation. [4] The railroad cost $27,023.24 to build. [5]
In 1850, the Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad was foreclosed and folded into a new road named the Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad. [5] This new railroad built a straight and more direct route between Lockport and Niagara Falls, NY, allowing it to abandon the original winding, strap railroad line of the Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad in 1851. With the abandonment of the Lockport and Niagara Falls route, the Lewiston Railroad was also abandoned as there was no further use for it. Despite that, the Lewiston Railroad charter was sold to the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad in 1851. [4]
On December 22nd, 1853, the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad and the Lewiston Railroad entered into an agreement with the New York Central Railroad, whereby the New York Central would operate the two roads. [1]
The Lewiston Railroad had then began building a new route from the same starting point in Lewiston as the original line, but then headed south for about 5 miles to Suspension Bridge where the Grand Trunk Railway crossed the Niagara River into the US from Canada. [1] In Suspension Bridge, line also met up with the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad, and connected with the Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad, the latter of which was used to make it all the way into Niagara Falls and a meet with the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad, which owned the Lewiston Railroad.
On September 30th, 1855, the Lewiston Railroad Company was merged into the New York Central Railroad Company. [2] [3]
The Niagara River is a river that flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the river's name. According to Iroquoian scholar Bruce Trigger, Niagara is derived from the name given to a branch of the locally residing native Neutral Confederacy, who are described as being called the Niagagarega people on several late-17th-century French maps of the area. According to George R. Stewart, it comes from the name of an Iroquois town called Ongniaahra, meaning "point of land cut in two".
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Lewiston is a town in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 15,944 at the 2020 census. The town and its contained village are named after Morgan Lewis, a governor of New York.
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest, along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.
Interstate 190 is a north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway that connects I-90 in Buffalo, New York with the Canada-U.S. border near Niagara Falls. The freeway bisects downtown Buffalo before crossing Grand Island and travelling around the outskirts of Niagara Falls before crossing the Niagara River on the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge into Ontario. On the Canada side of the Canada–US border, the freeway continues as Highway 405, a short spur that connects with the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW), which in turn provides a freeway connection to Toronto, Canada's largest city. The 28.34-mile-long (45.61 km) route also provides access to the QEW at the Peace Bridge between Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ontario.
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