INDUSTRIAL & TERMINAL RAILROADS &
RAIL-MARINE OPERATIONS
OF BROOKLYN, QUEENS, STATEN
ISLAND, BRONX &
MANHATTAN:
BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD St. George, Staten Island, NY
.
COMING SOON - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
.
updated:
update summary:
date:
.
.
History
The St George Terminal of the Baltimore and Ohio opened March 1886
It
was perhaps the least used of th rail marine terminals, as freight
could be brought directly into Staten iSalnd via the Arthur Kill
Bridge. What it did do, was forward freight to the B&O Terminals in
Manhattan and Bronx; as the St Geoge Term was the only Baltimore &
Ohion on the west side of the Hudson.
Two howe truss pontoon bridges.
A
ferry and rail terminal at the St. George site and an extension of
the Staten Island Rapid Transit north from Vanderbilt's Landing
(today's Clifton Station) had been proposed in the 1870s by the owners
of the Staten Island Railroad, George Law, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and
Erastus Wiman, to replace the various ferry sites on the north and east
shores of Staten Island.
St. George was selected due to it being
the closest point from Staten Island to Manhattan, about a 5-mile
distance.The terminal and the local neighborhood were renamed to St.
George in honor of Law, allegedly as a concession by Wiman in order to
build the terminal and connecting tunnel on land owned by Law.
An
extension of the line to Tompkinsville was opened in 1884, and the
tunnel between Tompkinsville and the terminal was constructed from 1884
to 1885. The ferry terminal was opened in early 1886, while the rail
terminal opened in March of that year.[9][1][10] The terminal's
entrance building would be opened in 1897.[4]
The St. George rail terminal as originally built was constructed of wood, with no overhead obstructions.
Adjacent
to the station was a large freight terminal called the St. George Yard,
where the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's freight operations exchanged
with car floats to other terminals in the New York Harbor. The B&O
also operated the Staten Island Rapid Transit and ferries under a
99-year lease signed in 1885. A trolley terminal for the Staten Island
Electric Company was formerly located above the ferryhouse.[11][12]
After
the Municipal takeover of the Staten Island Ferry service, a new St.
George Ferry Terminal Complex was designed by Carrère and Hastings and
opened in 1905.
As part of this construction, the St. George
tunnel was lengthened.[8] It was built with two portals at its north
end; one on the geographic east side currently in use by the Staten
Island Railway, and an additional western portal intended for the
Staten Island Tunnel, which would have traveled across the Narrows and
connected to the New York City Subway's BMT Fourth Avenue Line in
Brooklyn.[8] In 1923 an excavation shaft for the Narrows tunnel was
constructed at the south end of the terminal near Shore Road, though
construction was halted in 1925.[4][11][14] In 1930, civic leaders
proposed a $2.5 million ferry terminal to replace the existing complex,
with an underground train terminal below a 26-story office development.
However, this plan was never carried out.[15]
On June 25, 1946,
a large fire destroyed both the wooden ferry and rail terminals,
killing three people. Full service was restored in July of that year. A
new facility was built by the city, opening on June 8, 1951, which led
the tunneling shaft to be filled in. The new facility cost $21 million.
The former freight yard was replaced by a New York City Department of
Transportation municipal parking lot when the new terminal opened; the
parking lot has since been replaced by Richmond County Bank Ballpark.
