CHAPTER XI 



LATER MEANS OF COMMUNICATION 



THE successful establishment of a railroad between 

 Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills in Maryland, and 

 of the Mohawk Valley Railroad, the ancestor of the 

 New York Central, turned the attention of both civil and 

 mechanical engineers and of capitalists to the possibilities 

 of the new method of travel; and a craze for railroad build- 

 ing began, which, with the United States Bank troubles and 

 some others, helped to bring on the financial panic of 1837. 



One of the earliest of these railroads to be incorporated was 

 the New York and Harlem, April 25, 1831, with a capital of 

 $350,000, increased the following year to $500,000, with the 

 stipulation that the road should be completed to the Harlem 

 River by 1835. This company was authorized to build a 

 railroad upon the island of Manhattan only, by way of the 

 Bowery and Fourth Avenue. The engineering difficulties 

 to be overcome were too much for the engineers of that day, 

 and, notwithstanding the stipulation as to the completion of 

 the road by 1835, it was little more than started at that date. 

 On April 17, 1832, the New York and Albany Railroad was in- 

 corporated for the purpose of building a road from the end of 

 Fourth Avenue, Manhattan, to Albany. This company met 



with no success in raising money for its construction; and, on 



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