This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... Vanderbilt put a steamer on this route, and he met the competition of the older lines by having a special train take his passengers from Providence to Boston. The boats of the older lines left Providence for New York just after the arrival of the noon train from Boston. This informal connection between the ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... Vanderbilt put a steamer on this route, and he met the competition of the older lines by having a special train take his passengers from Providence to Boston. The boats of the older lines left Providence for New York just after the arrival of the noon train from Boston. This informal connection between the railroad and the steamboat did not survive, nor was the steamboat's dominance in the relationship to be permanent. Within two years (1837) the Rhode Island Legislature was calling the Boston & Providence Railroad to account for having violated its charter by refusing to some steamboats free access to its wharves for the discharge of through passengers and freight. This fruitless action resulted because the railroad had for some time been interested in some of the steamboats and took this means, though ineffectually, to break the opposition. A railroad owned by another company was completed from Providence to Stonington late in the same year, and in the season of 1838 this company made agreements with Vanderbilt and other steamboat-owners for a steamboat line connecting at that point for New York. Just at this juncture the Atlantic Steamboat Company, a new corporation, put on a very fast boat to Providence. The Boston & Providence Railroad Company at once put down the fare from Providence to New York to two dollars direct and three dollars via the quicker Stonington route. The boat of the new Atlantic Company was too fast for them and the next step was to offer to purchase Vanderbilt's steamer for sixty thousand dollars provided she could beat the boat of the rival Atlantic Company. This she failed regularly to do, so the fare by the railroad steamboat line came down to one dollar. Petty persecutions followed: no special trains would be granted...
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