Laying of the Rails to Jamestown to-day.
Arrival of the First Train from New York.
HISTORY OF THE ROAD
Dinner to Mr. Kennard, Chief-Engineer.
Speeches, Toasts, &c., &c.RECENT HISTORY OF THE WORK.
This great enterprise, which has for a decade of years absorbed the interest of capitalists and commercial men, as well as the business public, both east and west, and which in its vastness of design unites the valley of the Mississippi, (and ultimately the Pacific slope), to the great emporium of the Atlantic shore – has reached a stage of its completion that assures its speedy and indisputable success. Its line traverses the very garden of the States, the central region of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, so well known to producers and buyers as the great market ground between the Lakes and the Gulf States, and it will, when [section missing from original] and travel through the country.
On the 6th day of April last, the negotiations which had been for some time going on between the Erie & New York City Rail Road, and the Atlantic and Great Western Rail Road Company, were brought to a close, satisfactory to all the parties of interest. The result was, the adoption of the latter Company of 38 miles of the Erie and New York City Rail Road line. The principal part of the work done upon this 38 miles was in grading.
On the 26th of the same month, the Engineers of the new Company placed their instruments upon the line for the first time and about the first of May the Contractors and Engineer Corps commenced operations at the Junction with the New York and Erie RailRoad near Little Valley.
On the third day of July the iron was laid down to Randolph, sixteen miles from the New York and Erie Junction. The subsequent progress has been more speedy, as larger forces of men have been employed on the work.
THE WORK AND THE WORKMEN. — ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST TRAIN.
The great fact, so long anticipated by our citizens, and a widely-interested public, has at last transpired. The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad has run its first train of cars into Jamestown, opening thirty-three miles of this great thoroughfare of travel and transport. The vigor of the English Engineer, the coolness and energy of his American associate, Mr. HILL, and the almost incessant urging of the work by the able Contractors, Messrs. DOOLITTLE and STREATOR, have achieved this result. Such a systemization of labor, such a skillful selection of architects and workmen, and such a husbanding of time, material and resources, have been seldom seen, even upon the largest public works. The enterprise has been literally driven through – not, however, with any lack of the most thorough oversight and execution. Sixteen hundred men have been employed in all departments of the enterprise, and all kept sharply at work by the admirable organization of the force by the Contractors. As a specimen of the rapidity of the operations, we may mention that the track-laying, when unobstructed, was carried on at the rate of one mile per day, and that one one day, two and one-fifth miles were laid. The work has been prosecuted for the last two or three days in the midst of heavy storms of driving rain, and even at that “the night has been a joint laborer with the day.”
As anticipated in our regular edition of Thursday evening, the work reached this place at an early hour this afternoon. At twenty five minutes past twelve o’clock the first rail lapped on the Main St. Bridge, and at two o’clock the workmen had finished the work of track-laying up to the Depot Grounds.
At 4 o’clock the whistle announced in the distance the approach of the train from New York, and in a few minutes the first iron horse that ever neighed in our town strode with majestic tread across the Main St bridge. The train was a small one, being only for the accommodation of the few invited guests. The Jamestown Cornet Band, which had been taken on the train at Kennedyville, added to the occasion the lovely strains of the appropriate air “Ain’t I glad to get out of the wilderness?” The occasion, although intended to be merely private and complimentary to Mr. KENNARD, was marked by the presence of an eager multitude who thronged the avenues, vacant places, windows and house tops, to witness the first throb of this great artery of civilization in Southern Chautauqua.
On board the train were Messers. KENNARD and HILL, Chief Engineers, Messers. MINOT and MARSIL, Officers of the New York & Erie Rail Road, SIG. T. DEOSDADOS, Agent for DON JOSE DE SALAMANCA, Sig. NAVARRO, Agent for the Duke DE RIENZARES, and other representatives of the Spanish interest in this country, JOHN GODDARD, Esq., of London, ROBERT THALLON, Esq., of New York, and other guests.
Source: Jamestown [NY] Journal, 31 August 1860