CHAPTER I
The South Side RR Becomes a Reality
WHEN the LIRR was first built and opened through to Greenport in 1844, its projectors thought of it as a direct route through to Boston, and somewhat a means of opening up to colonization the endless pine barrens through the center of the island. Historically, however, the oldest settlements on L.I. have been on the western end and all along the south shore. The original line of the LIRR, therefore, once it left Jamaica, passed through an uninhabited wilderness and served none of the old established and populous villages strung out along the south shore. Persons wishing to reach Brooklyn and Manhattan by rail had to make their way along the primitive roads inland, to one of the lonely LIRR stations in the center of the island, and as this traffic grew, various stage coach routes sprang up to meet the increasing demand for public transportation. Several lines like the Deer Park-Babylon stage and the Hempstead-Freeport stage ran on regular schedules and carried many passengers.
In the 1850's transportation on the south side was further improved when the Plank Road companies took over the old wagon tracks and converted them into planked toll roads. The Merrick & Jamaica Plank Rd. Co. improved the Merrick Road between Jamaica and Merrick, while the South Oyster Bay Tpk. Co. improved the road from Hempstead to Merrick and on to Babylon (the present Babylon Turnpike and the Merrick Road). By 1860 there was a regular stage coach line between Amityville and Fulton Ferry which made two round trips a week, each round trip occupying three days, the middle day being allowed to rest the horses and to let the passengers transact their business. The stage was drawn by three horses and a relay was kept at Hempstead. It carried the mails for all the villages and the freights.
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