Report of Committee on Historical Tablet 15 



The eleventh date and event inscribed on the tablet is : 

 1812. Rebuilding of British forts by the Americans. 



The committee of 1906 selected and approved " 181 2. Rebuild- 

 ing of British Forts by Americans." 



From Wilson's Memorial History of New York City and the 

 Public Papers of Daniel D. Tompkins, Governor of New York, 

 1807 to 1817, published by the State in 1902, we learn that in 

 1807 the city was defenseless, the Narrows and Hell Gate passage 

 being without a fortification ; that the State of New York com- 

 menced the building of fortifications on Staten Island at the Nar- 

 rows in the winter of 1808-9, and that the work was continued 

 until the close of the war, December 25, 1814 (43). 



We think from these circumstances, stated more in detail in 

 the appendix, that the following inscription would be more ac- 

 curate : 1808-14. Forts at the Narrows built by the State of New 

 York. 



The location of the several forts is well shown on a Map of 

 New York Bay and Harbor and the Environs (U. S. Coast Sur- 

 vey, 1844-5), ii^ the library of the Association. 



The twelfth date and event inscribed on the tablet is : 

 i860. Running of first steam railroad on Staten Island. 



The committee of 1906 selected and approved the following: 

 " i860. First steam railroad on Staten Island." 



This was the railroad from Chfton to Tottenville, formerly 

 owned by the Staten Island Railroad Company, now by the Staten 

 Island Railway Company. Clute (Annals 331) says that the 

 " first receipts from passengers was on the 23d day of April, i860, 

 the trains running only a part of the way ; but on the second day 

 of June, of that year, the formal opening of the road took place." 

 Morris (2: 461) gives the same dates. 



On August 22, 1910, S. P. Kretzer, Secretary of the Staten 

 Island Rapid Transit Railway Company, wrote: "As far as I 



