The Baltimore and New York Railway was a railroad line built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) from Cranford, New Jersey, to the western side of the Arthur Kill Bridge in New Jersey, connecting with the North Shore Branch of Staten Island Rapid Transit. The line was built to provide the B&O access to a terminal in New York City, in Staten Island. Today, the line is used by CSX Transportation for freight trains.
History Background In 1883, Erastus Wiman proposed using the barely operational Staten Island Railway as the centerpiece of his plan to develop the island. Wiman's plan called for a system encircling the island using two miles of the SIRW between Vanderbilt's Landing and Tompkinsville. His plan also called for the centralization of all ferries from one terminal, replacing the six to eight terminals active near what is now St. George. Wiman approached Robert Garrett, president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), to back the plan, and Garrett agreed. To this end the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railroad Company (SIRTR) was organized on March 25, 1880 and incorporated on April 14, 1880.
On April 3, 1883, the SIRTR gained control of the Staten Island Railway, as Erasmus Wiman was elected to its board of Directors of the Railroad and became the railway's president. On June 30, 1883, the SIRTR leased the SIRW for a term of 99 years, to become effective when the line opened between Clifton and Tompkinsville. In July 1884, after obtaining control of the franchises for the Staten Island Ferry, Wiman proposed connecting the island to New Jersey through the construction of bridges, and to complete expanded storage and terminal facilities on New York Harbor.
On August 7, 1885, it was reported that Erastus Wiman had started negotiations with President Robert Garrett to discuss Wiman's idea to have the B&O's proposed New York entrance be in Staten Island, where a terminal for passenger and freight operations could be constructed. The B&O would access Staten Island by a combination of some railroads in New Jersey. Wiman indicated in an interview that Garrett had been introduced to his proposal indirectly as early as December 1884. Wiman's initial proposal was to have the B&O obtain trackage rights over the Jersey Central to Elizabeth, and run over a new line he would build that would cross the Arthur Kill and connect to his North Shore Branch on Staten Island to provide access to St. George. Wiman also proposed an alternative in which he would build a new line between Philadelphia and Elizabethport for the B&O if that railroad entered into a traffic agreement with him.
A controlling interest in the SIRTR was obtained by the B&O in November 1885 through purchases of stock. On November 21, 1885, at a stockholders' meeting of the SIRTR, an agreement by which the B&O would lease the SIRTR for 99 years was unanimously approved. The B&O acquired half of the $500,000 stock of the SIRTR, and the B&O guaranteed the interest and principal on the SIRTR's bonds, which were estimated to total $2 million. In addition, SIRTR stockholders were guaranteed to receive as much revenue from through-traffic as they currently got from local traffic. The sale of SIRTR stock would pay for the completion of the SIRTR's North Shore Branch, a bridge across the Arthur Kill, terminal facilities, and waterfront property already acquired.
As part of the deal, the B&O also acquired the ferries owned by the SIRTR, the dock facilities it contracted from, over 150 acres of land, and approximately 2 miles of deep port water front. The agreement would give the B&O access to Staten Island's waterfront on New York Harbor, where it could construct terminal facilities for the shipment, storage, and reception of freight, eliminating the expensive cost of using facilities in Brooklyn and New York, and saving money on charges such as rehandling and lighterage. This would allow the B&O to compete with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in the freight business. The SIRTR's acquisition by the B&O would provide it access to the larger railroad's financial resources.
Following the confirmation of the contract by the SIRTR, it was revealed that the shareholders of the B&O had unanimously ratified the agreement with the SIRTR at their annual meeting on November 16. Following the ratification of the deal by the SIRTR, a new board of directors of that company was elected, consisting of seven B&O directors and six of the old SIRTR directors.
The B&O planned to construct an 18-mile line from the Philadelphia and Reading Railway at Bound Brook to Elizabeth for $1.5 million. A bridge would be constructed across the Arthur Kill from Elizabeth to connect to the SIRTR. Wiman needed the proceeds of the sale to pay for the construction of the North Shore Branch. The funds also helped pay for the construction of a bridge over the Kill Van Kull, the acquisition of of waterfront property, and for terminal facilities at St. George. The bridge was estimated to cost less than $300,000.
In addition, the B&O planned to place large screw steamers on the Staten Island Ferry to allow full trains to be carried on board, providing direct passenger service to New York City, with access to all the city's elevated lines and the Broadway streetcar lines available at the Battery. The trip on the ferry would not take longer than 15 minutes. In terms of freight, coal piers would be installed on the Staten Island waterfront to enable the loading of coal directly into steamers, grain elevators and warehouses would be installed, and docks and piers would be put into place to allow deep water boats to be loaded without requiring the use of expensive lighters. Robert Garrett expected that large warehouses would soon be constructed on the island, and that the island would become a very desirable location for many industries and as a place for people to live. In a statement issued on November 21, Garrett said that the B&O had to find its own New York terminal facilities since the Jersey Central had refused to accept a traffic agreement offered by the B&O through the Philadelphia and Reading Railway in summer 1884. Garrett stated that the cost of gaining entrance to New York was "so comparatively light."
$1,500,000 of real estate on Staten Island changed ownership in the previous two weeks at increasing prices as a result of insider knowledge of the deal.
While it was immediately expected that the B&Os planned route from Bound Brook to Staten Island, including the construction of the bridge, would be heavily fought by competing railroads, allies of the B&O insisted that work on the bridge and new line would begin immediately. Officers of the Pennsylvania Railroad threatened to block construction of the proposed new B&O line. By the start of December 1885, work has already begun to survey the proposed route of the new line from Bound Brook. At the start of December 1885, the greatest opposition to the new bridge came from Elizabethport due to opposition to the interests of the B&O on the part of local residents and merchants. On November 30, 1885, a certificate of incorporation was filed with the New Jersey secretary of state's office for the Roselle and South Plainfield Railway Company. The railroad, which would be long, running from Roselle to a point near Easton and Amboy Road near South Plainfield, was initially suspected to be an attempt to kill the B&O's proposed line. The B&O's proposed independent line to Staten Island would have had to cross one or more branches of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which provided additional opportunities for the line to be delayed.
On December 2, 1885, a director of the Jersey Central said that the railroad was not disturbed by the B&O's announced Staten Island plans and that it was willing to operate B&O service to New York over its line on fair terms and more cheaply than the B&O could do on its own line. The director said there was no danger in having their line paralleled since the B&O could accomplish the same goal more cheaply by running along the route of the Jersey Central. They went on to say that the Jersey Central had not agreed to the traffic agreement offered in summer 1884 as the railroad was suing to annul its lease by the Philadelphia and Reading Railway. Per the director, the contract would have made the Jersey Central poorer as it would have to carry the B&O to the Central's valuable terminal facilities on a proportional rate. The director went on to say that a deal would be worked out with the B&O once Garrett stopped bluffing. It was also reported that Erastus Wiman hired two well known lobbyists for work in the state capitol in Trenton for the winter. While the B&O claimed that a bill passed in the previous winter meant that New Jersey had already authorized the construction of the Arthur Kill Bridge, Congressman William Walter Phelps denied that this was the case. In early December 1885, a group of surveyors tested the bottom of the Arthur Kill opposite the southern portion of Elizabeth to determine a workable location for the bridge.
On December 9, 1885, it was reported that Representative Perry Belmont would introduce a bill to authorize the construction of a bridge across the Arthur Kill and make it a post road to the United States House of Representatives as soon as possible. The bridge would be required to have spans no less than 30 feet above the low water mark, and that are no less than 200 feet in the clear on each side of the central pier of the draw.
The bill to authorize the construction of the Arthur Kill Bridge was introduced in the House by Perry Belmont and in the Senate by Warner Miller. A joint hearing of the subcommittees of the Senate and House Committees of Commerce was held on January 19, 1886 on the bill. Erastus Wiman argued in favor of the bill, detailing the potential economic benefits from completing the bridge, while Congressman William Walther Phelps spoke out against the bridge, saying that the bridge would be harmful to commerce on the Arthur Kill and would be unnecessary. The House Commerce Committee voted to favorably report the bill on February 12, 1886.
Construction of the North Shore Branch began on March 17, 1884, was completed in 1885 and opened for service on February 23, 1886, with trains terminating at Elm Park. On March 7, 1886, the key piece of Wiman's plan, the St. George Terminal, opened. In mid-1886, the North Shore Branch opened its new terminal at Erastina. In 1889–1890, a station was built at the South Avenue grade crossing at Arlington as the tracks were extended to the Arthur Kill Bridge. At Arlington, trains were reversed for their trip back to St. George. Even a few years after its opening, most trains terminated at Erastina.
Incorporation and construction The B&O made various proposals for a railroad between Staten Island and New Jersey. The accepted plan consisted of a -long section from the Arthur Kill to meet the Jersey Central Railroad at Cranford, through Roselle and Linden in Union County.