Overview | |
---|---|
Location | Lisbon, Connecticut, United States |
Coordinates | 41°33′16″N72°02′10″W / 41.5544°N 72.036°W |
Operation | |
Opened | September 1839 [1] |
Owner | Providence & Worcester RR |
Character | Rail |
Technical | |
Length | 300 feet (90 m) |
No. of tracks | 1 |
Track gauge | Standard |
Electrified | Formerly (for Connecticut Company streetcars) |
Taft Tunnel is a railroad tunnel in the northeast United States, located in the southwest part of Lisbon, Connecticut. Completed in 1837, it was the first common carrier railroad tunnel built in the United States, though it was not used until 1839 (before which several other tunnels were in use). It is still in use in its original form.
In late November 1835, the Norwich and Worcester Railroad awarded a contract for construction of the first 8 miles (13 km) of its line from Norwich, Connecticut, to Jewett City, Connecticut. The most difficult section of the railroad to construct, it ran along the rocky ledges of the Quinebaug River and required a short tunnel under Bundy Hill. [1] The tunnel was 300 feet (90 m) long, 23 feet (7.0 m) wide, and 18 feet (5.5 m) high. It was ready for rails to be laid on August 26, 1837, and declared complete two days later. [1] Some passenger and freight service began around September 1839, though the railroad did not officially open until March 9, 1840. [1]
The Taft Tunnel is the oldest common carrier tunnel in the country to be completed, although the Staple Bend Tunnel of the non-common carrier Allegheny Portage Railroad was completed in 1833. [1] However, it was not the first to open - the Yorkville Tunnel (opened October 27, 1837), Black Rock Tunnel (opened 1838), and Howard Tunnel (opened 1838) were all in service before the Taft Tunnel. [2] Now used by the Providence and Worcester Railroad for freight service, the tunnel is still among the oldest active railroad tunnels in the United States. [3]
The Cobble Hill Tunnel is an abandoned Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, running through the neighborhoods of Downtown Brooklyn and Cobble Hill. When open, it ran for about 2,517 feet (767 m) between Columbia Street and Boerum Place. It is the oldest railway tunnel beneath a city street in North America that was fully devoted to rail. It is also deemed the oldest subway tunnel in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Lisbon is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States, 7.3 miles (11.7 km) by road northeast of Norwich. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 4,195 at the 2020 census. The town center is also known as the village of Newent. The town school is Lisbon Central School. Its only postal code, 06351, is Jewett City, Connecticut, which is a village of the town of Griswold, Connecticut and encompasses all of Lisbon and Griswold.
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The United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company (UNJ&CC) was a United States-based railroad company established in 1872. It was formed by the consolidation of three existing companies: the Camden and Amboy Railroad, Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, and New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company. The Camden and Amboy and New Jersey Rail Road were among the earliest North American railroads. The Pennsylvania Railroad leased the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company in 1872.
The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating 612 miles (985 km) of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence, Rhode Island, and Worcester, Massachusetts, and ran its first trains in 1847. A successful railroad, the P&W subsequently expanded with a branch to East Providence, Rhode Island, and for a time leased two small Massachusetts railroads. Originally a single track, its busy mainline was double-tracked after a fatal 1853 collision in Valley Falls, Rhode Island.
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Alvin Hoar Adams was the founder of Adams and Company, a forerunner to Adams Express, one of the first companies to act as a carrier for express shipments by rail in the United States. Adams and Company provided shippers with a complete shipping solution, picking up goods at the shipper's location, carrying them to the railroad terminal, and then delivering them from the distant railroad terminal to the recipient's door.
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This is a list of the earliest railroads in North America, including various railroad-like precursors to the general modern form of a company or government agency operating locomotive-drawn trains on metal tracks.
The New York and New England Railroad (NY&NE) was a railroad connecting southern New York State with Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; and Boston, Massachusetts. It operated under that name from 1873 to 1893. Prior to 1873 it was known as the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, which had been formed from several smaller railroads that dated back to 1846. After a bankruptcy in 1893, the NY&NE was reorganized and briefly operated as the New England Railroad before being leased to the competing New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1898.
The Naugatuck Railroad is a common carrier railroad owned by the Railroad Museum of New England and operated on tracks leased from the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The original Naugatuck Railroad was a railroad chartered to operate through south central Connecticut in 1845, with the first section opening for service in 1849. In 1887 the line was leased by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, and became wholly owned by 1906. At its greatest extent the Naugatuck ran from Bridgeport north to Winsted. Today's Naugatuck Railroad, formed in 1996, runs from Waterbury to the end of track in Torrington, Connecticut. From Waterbury south to the New Haven Line, Metro-North Railroad operates commuter service on the Waterbury Branch.
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The Hartford and New Haven Railroad (H&NH), chartered in 1833, was the first railroad built in the state of Connecticut and an important direct predecessor of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The company was formed to connect the cities of New Haven, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts. It built northwards from New Haven, opening its first segment in 1838, and reaching Hartford in December 1839. The company reached Springfield in 1844 under the auspices of the Hartford and Springfield Railroad, a subsidiary chartered in Massachusetts. Branches were later built to Suffield, New Britain, and Middletown and operated by the Hartford and New Haven. The H&NH merged with the New York and New Haven Railroad in 1872, forming the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
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Cedar Hill Yard is a classification yard located in New Haven, North Haven and Hamden, Connecticut, United States. It was built by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in the early 1890s in and around New Haven's Cedar Hill neighborhood, which gave the yard its name. Electrical catenary for electric locomotives was added to the yard in 1915. To handle increasing traffic as a result of World War I, the yard was greatly expanded between 1917 and 1920 with additional construction along both sides of the Quinnipiac River. The construction project added two humps where railroad cars were sorted into trains by gravity. The yard was further modernized in the 1920s, becoming one of the busiest railroad yards in the United States, and the most important yard in the entire New Haven Railroad system.
Media related to Taft Tunnel at Wikimedia Commons