232 The Story of The Bronx 



Chester and Boston electric road, and for the completed and 

 proposed subways, while connections could be made with the 

 Second and Third Avenue elevated roads at a comparatively 

 small expense. 



The Harlem Railroad was a single-track road originally, 

 but its business increased to so great an extent that, in 1852, 

 it was double-tracked for the first seventeen miles of its length. 

 The enormously increasing business of both the Harlem and 

 the New Haven roads below Woodlawn, compelled the Harlem 

 road to quadruple its tracks from that station to the Harlem 

 River. This was accomplished in the fall of 1891 by the 

 widening of the road-bed, the sinking of the tracks, and the 

 building of retaining walls at an expense of about $2,000,000. 

 The Port Morris branch was practically completed at the same 

 time, though there had been a single track for upwards of 

 forty years. The great steel bridge over the Harlem River, 

 carrying four tracks, the first ever so constructed, was erected 

 at the same time at a cost of $951,398.17. The length of the 

 bridge is 706 feet ; its width is fifty-six feet, and the draw has a 

 length of 389 feet. 



In addition to its more than one hundred miles of track 

 within the Borough, the Central road has a great yard at 

 Melrose, containing fifty-five acres, for the storage of extra 

 cars and motors, as well as a freight yard for Bronx freight. 

 The maximum passenger rate under the general railroad laws 

 of 1848 and 1850 was three cents a mile; the average rate is 

 now about two and one half cents, and for commuters consid- 

 erably less. 



On May 12, 1846, the Hudson River Railroad was chartered 

 by the State ; but work did not begin until the following year. 

 The plan was for the road to follow very closely the east bank 

 of the Hudson River from the station at Thirtieth Street and 



