Transportation

Do you know the most popular way to travel during the 1800’s? Well one of them was the horse and the buggy. Horse and buggy were one of the most popular forms of transportation between the years of 1815 and 1915. A horse and buggy, or horse and carriage, is a simple two-person carriage usually pulled by one, or occasionally two horses. Carriages can come in different sizes and shapes, and they have had a wide variety of uses. Carriages move people from place to place, as well as transporting goods. It might surprise you that a smaller number of people who owned carriages, now own cars. As a result, more and more people were able to own vehicles, and in turn, were able to get better roads in our town. As roads grew and improved, people could go to more and more places.  

Trolley Transportation

 Have you ever thought about what transport was like in the early days of Lindenhurst? In 1871, the trolley line was 1.53 miles from the South side of the railroad depot to the dock, and consisted of two trolley cars and two horses. In the mid 1880s, the electric streetcar, or trolley, was invented by an American engineer and inventor, Frank Julian Sprague (1857-1934). An overhead electric wire provided the power and moved several cars at once. The fare for stops at West Babylon, Lindenhurst and Copiague was 5 cents and the full trip from Amityville to Babylon cost 10 cents. These trolleys were good, but they have some mishaps.           

“Others have described the need to distribute passenger weight on the trolley cars, otherwise the cars would tip.” Article compiled and written by Mary Cascone, C.A., Director of the Office of Historic Services, and Thomas B. Smith, Town Historian, Town of Babylon. Streetcar or tram, also called a trolley, is a vehicle that runs on tracks laid in the streets, operated in single units and usually driven by an electric motor. You have arrived at your destination!

Train Transportation 

Chuga chuga choo choo! Did you see the train go by? Thomas Wellwood and his wife Abby, bought the land (that is now railroad tracks) as early as 1861. After the arrival of the railroad, they purchased huge areas of land. The  Lindenhurst railroad opened in 1867. By 1870, they owned so much land that the railroad’s timetable listed a “Wellwood Station. The railroad was made electric on May 20,1925. But it was rebuilt in 1902 and 1968-1973. The South Side Railroad arrived through Breslau in October 1867. Charles S. Schleier had paid $2,300 for a rebuild of a new Breslau depot in 1870. The South Side Railroad extended from Queens all the way to the town of Babylon on Long Island.    

Transportation is way more advanced now than it was back in the 80’s. People now use cars, airplanes, bikes, walk, boat and many other ways. Transportation helps you get to school, work and other places. In our days we travel to school by bus, car or bike but in the olden days people may have used trolleys and trains. Transportation has changed our lives.