JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
A History of Railroads in Tompkins County

Author
Lee, Hardy Campbell; Rossiter, Winton G.; Marcham, John
Abstract
In American railroading, this upstate New York county was a true
pioneer, a proving ground.To generate commerce, the county's
early entrepreneurs explored ways to transport products and
people from and to bigger markets, mines, and the Great Lakes.
After considering water routes to overcome Tompkins County's
location in a deep valley, investors turned in 1833 to inclined
planes and horse-drawn freight and passenger coaches on rails.
Steam locomotives soon replaced horsepower.
Amid wild speculation and financial crises, more than fifty different
railroad corporations were formed, which evolved into seven separate
routes through the county. Over time, prosperity waxed
and waned for its miners, manufacturers, dairy farmers, merchants,
and higher education.
But after World War II the auto, truck, and airlines put most
smaller American railroads out of business.
This illustrated history records a century and a half of
colorful railroading, at the end of which only one line remains in
the county, carrying long trains of coal to a Cayuga Lake power
plant and of rock salt from an underground mine.
Date Issued
2008Publisher
The History Center in Tompkins County
Subject
history; railroad; Tompkins County; New York
Type
book