New London, Willimantic, & Springfield (NLW&S) Railroad established
The Long Dock
The Long Dock is a five-part glimpse into the history of the Central Vermont Railway’s New London Pier.
This website was produced by AECOM for the CT Port Authority and the State of Connecticut. This satisfies a stipulation in a Memorandum of Agreement to address the adverse effects of the State Pier Infrastructure Improvements Project on historic properties, including the Central Vermont Railroad Pier. The Memorandum of Agreement was signed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Connecticut Port Authority, and Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office.
1
1847 - 1873
The Railroad Comes to New London
Map of New London harbor from an 1854 map of New London County. While the NLW&P had several docks and a small railyard, their facilities were relatively modest compared to the expansion in the 1870s. Library of Congress.
In the mid-1870s, the Central Vermont Railroad constructed a massive granite pier in New London Harbor as part of an expansion strategy that would have seen the railroad and the port serving as a cheap means of exporting grain grown on the farms of the Midwest.
W
hile this hoped for export traffic appears to have never materialized, the pier was the center of the Central Vermont’s freight activities in New London into the middle of the 20th century, with the railroad operating a fleet of cargo ships to ferry freight between New York City and New London until 1946.
While this hoped for export traffic appears to have never materialized, the pier was the center of the Central Vermont’s freight activities in New London into the middle of the 20th century, with the railroad operating a fleet of cargo ships to ferry freight between New York City and New London until 1946.
New London had prospered in the early 19th century as an important whaling port, though by the middle of the century, the whaling industry was beginning a period of decline.
In an effort to revitalize their city’s economic vitality, New London business interests first tried, without success, to convince the Norwich & Worcester Railroad, located further north on the Thames River, to extend their line into the New London port.
When that failed, they chartered and provided most of the initial capital for the New London, Willimantic & Springfield Railroad, which was to build a rail line north toward Springfield, Massachusetts. A year later, in 1848, a second company, the New London, Willimantic & Palmer Railroad (NLW&P), was chartered to complete the line north from the Connecticut border to the new terminus of Palmer, Massachusetts, east of Springfield.
The initial railroad company was merged into the NLW&P in early 1849. The railroad was completed to Palmer in September 1850, with two trips a day being run on the line. The railroad did not prosper, however, and went into financial receivership in 1859.
The railroad was reorganized as the New London Northern Railroad (NLN), which exited receivership in April 1861. The NLN expanded in the 1860s, acquiring several smaller railroads and extending to Miller’s Falls, Massachusetts by October 1866 through the acquisition of the Amherst & Palmer Railroad.
The railroad also invested in their facilities at New London, where in May 1861 they announced plans for a new station building and a 600-by-150-foot wharf. While it is unclear when (or whether) this planned wharf or pier was erected, by 1868 the NLN had a substantial presence along the New London waterfront on both sides of Winthrop Cove.
Winthrop Cove, immediately northeast of the center of New London, was located on the western side of the harbor formed by the Thames River and Long Island Sound and had been the location of early industrial development in the New London area.
The Beers Atlas of New London County, Connecticut, published in 1868, shows the NLN’s properties straddling the entrance to Winthrop Cove, with several piers on the east bank of the cove, an extensive yard with engine houses, turntable and repair and paint shops on the west side, as well as a large freight depot and steamboat wharf along Water Street in the core of New London.
As the NLN grew during the 1860s, another railroad, the Vermont Central Railroad (VCRR), was expanding under the direction of its president, J. Gregory Smith. In 1870 alone, the VCRR leased the 118-mile Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain Railroad, the Rutland Railroad, and 21 miles of the Vermont & Massachusetts Railroad between Brattleboro, Vermont and Palmer, Massachusetts.
To solidify his railroad system’s control over New England, Smith and his partners leased the NLN for 20 years in December 1871. Control of this railroad, according to historian Robert C. Jones, would allow the VCRR “to run trains from either Ogdensburg [New York] or Canada through Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut and—with a boat connection—be able to transport passengers and freight right into New York City.”
These leases gave the VCRR the ability to transport people and goods from Palmer—which had connections to Boston, Providence, and New London—to points in Canada such as Montreal or Ottawa.
1847
New London, Willimantic & Palmer Railroad (NLW&P) established
1848
1849
NLW&S Railroad merged into the NLW&P Railroad
NLW&P Railroad goes into financial receivership
1859
1860s
Vermont Central Railroad (VCRR) has established presence in Vermont and eastern Canada
NLW&P Railroad reorganized as the New London Northern Railroad (NLN)
1861
1866
NLN Railroad acquires the Amherst & Palmer Railroad
NLN Railroad has facilities on the New London waterfront and their lines extend as far north as Palmer Massachusetts
Late 1860s
1870
VCRR leases the Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain Railroad, the Rutland Railroad, and 21 miles of the Vermont & Massachusetts Railroad between Brattleboro, Vermont, and Palmer, Massachusetts
VCRR leases the NLN Railroad for 20 years, thus establishing a line with connections between the New London waterfront and Vermont and Canada
1871
1873
VCRR announces plans for a massive pier on the New London waterfront
VCRR is reorganized as the Central Vermont Railroad (CVRR)
2
1873 - 1895
The “Largest Wharf in the United States”
The Central Vermont pier as depicted in O. H. Bailey & Co.’s 1876 bird’s eye illustration of New London.
Investment in the shipment of goods between New London and New York continued, and soon the VCRR determined that the facilities in New London were inadequate for the volume of freight the railroad anticipated handling in the Long Island Sound port.
While the NLN and its predecessors had previously partnered or contracted with steamship companies to provide service to New York, in April 1872, the NLN purchased two 600-ton steamships of its own—the Bolivar and Tillie. In June 1872 the ships began plying the Long Island Sound between New London and Pier 36 on the East River in New York City in a daily transportation of heavy freight.
The railroad’s management envisioned New London as a potential trans-Atlantic port, where ocean-going steamships could dock in the large, ice-free harbor and take on the grain exports of the Great Lakes region and Canada. In October 1873, the railroad announced plans to construct a massive pier (wharf, see next paragraph) from their facilities on Winthrop Neck out to a small rocky outcrop in New London Harbor known as the Isle of Rocks.
The initial reports estimated that the wharf would be 1200 feet in length and 50 feet in width. In January 1874, bids were solicited for the construction of what would become a 1,125-foot-long pier, which was designed to accommodate large ocean-going freighters rather than sailing vessels.
The pier would be an earth-filled structure (estimated at 50,000 cubic yards of earthen fill) “faced with Rubble Masonry” according to a January 10th advertisement in the New Haven Evening Register. While most of the structure would be 150 feet wide, there would be “projecting wings at each side of the head,” according to a Hartford Daily Courant article from January 9, 1874.
In addition to the pier, a new locomotive roundhouse and a machine shop would also be constructed. In February 1874, the contract for building the pier was awarded to Dawson, Tank & Co. of New London for $175,000—though overruns would eventually add an additional $10,500 to that price.
It should be noted that while the structure built for the railroad is commonly referred to as a “pier,” in a technical sense, it is a wharf. Unlike a pier, which extends out from dry land over water and is often built atop pilings driven into the bottom of a body of water, a wharf is a structure built through in-filling of areas beyond the low water line with the construction of some form of a retention structure, such as masonry walls or a timber bulkhead.
While “wharf” would more accurately describe the structure constructed by the railroad and this terminology was used in contemporary sources, this document will refer to the structure using the term “pier” for consistency with previous documentation, except when directly quoting contemporary sources.
From the materials specified in the advertisements inviting bids to construct the pier, it seems likely that it was built as a solid-filled retaining structure.
The exterior granite walls are likely load bearing and rest atop a foundation of timber rafts known as grillage, which were sunk using ballast stones to provide a solid, flat foundation. It seems likely that there was little in the way of cribbage—an interior lattice of timber supports often employed in wharfs—with the masonry walls holding the earthen fill in place.
While archaeologist Molly R. McDonald writes that solid-filled wharfs are “more tightly constructed and therefore able to retain finer fills such as sand, soil, and refuse,” often obtained from dredging, larger stones were also used at times. In the case of this pier, the latter fill may have been employed, as a September 4, 1875 article in the Waterbury Daily American states that “the walls are solid stone work, with a filling in of gravel.”
Just before construction began on the pier, the VCRR went through a corporate reorganization to buy itself time, as it fell behind on the large number of interest and lease payments. The railroad was renamed the Central Vermont Railroad in 1873, and it managed to renegotiate most of its pressing financial issues.
T
he initial reports estimated that the wharf would be 1200 feet in length and 50 feet in width. In January 1874, bids were solicited for the construction of what would become a 1,125-foot-long pier, which was designed to accommodate large ocean-going freighters rather than sailing vessels.
The initial reports estimated that the wharf would be 1200 feet in length and 50 feet in width. In January 1874, bids were solicited for the construction of what would become a 1,125-foot-long pier, which was designed to accommodate large ocean-going freighters rather than sailing vessels.
Following completion, the pier was featured in promotional materials, such as the 1876 “bird’s eye view” of New London. In an 1877 boosterish booklet published to promote the commercial advantages of New London’s seaport, author John R. Bolles touted the connectivity of the “magnificent granite wharf” (“the most commodious and convenient in the United States”) to Boston and New York, noting that the largest steamers could be accommodated.
The booklet highlighted the railroad connections to New England, Canada, the Midwest, and even the West Coast, boisterously claiming that “the proper termini of the Great American Trans-continental Railroad are New London, on the Atlantic, and San Francisco on the Pacific.”
By September 1875, the Waterbury Daily American was reporting that the pier, which some claimed to be “the largest wharf in the United States,” was nearing completion, though it appears that work was not finished until sometime in 1876.
G
oods could be transferred directly from vessels into warehouses for transport by railroad to locations in New England and the Midwest, utilizing the Central Vermont’s line to Ogdensburg on the St. Lawrence River, where freight could be transferred to Ontario or sailed up the river to the Great Lakes.
Goods could be transferred directly from vessels into warehouses for transport by railroad to locations in New England and the Midwest, utilizing the Central Vermont’s line to Ogdensburg on the St. Lawrence River, where freight could be transferred to Ontario or sailed up the river to the Great Lakes.
In the reverse direction, Midwestern and Canadian grain could be taken to New London and either stored in elevators on the pier or deposited directly onto waiting freighters for export.
It appears that the first use of the new pier was not, in fact, for Midwestern grain, but for anthracite coal mined in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania.
In early 1877, the Central Vermont completed $45,000 in coal-handling facilities on the pier and starting in June of that year, freighters owned by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (P&R) began steaming north from Philadelphia loaded with anthracite coal for distribution into the interior of New England by the Central Vermont. The coal was unloaded using a steam-powered crane that could move 100 tons an hour and deposited in coal bunkers on the pier or directly into waiting Central Vermont Railroad cars.
In 1878, the P&R shipped about two million tons of coal using its ocean-going fleet, most of it to New England ports, including New London—its only point of distribution in Connecticut—making the Central Vermont one of the few railroads in the state to turn a profit that year.
Despite this, the New York Times reported on June 7, 1877 that the Central Vermont viewed the use of the pier for coal as a “temporary and secondary matter,” and according to the Cincinnati Daily Gazette of June 9, 1877 the railroad still “[hoped] to get a large share of the grain export of the [Great Lakes region].”
3
1895 - 1932
Long Island Sound Steamers & Labor Issues
I
t is unclear whether the hoped-for grain export business ever materialized for the Central Vermont at New London, but it seems likely that it never developed to the degree the railroad had hoped.
It is unclear whether the hoped-for grain export business ever materialized for the Central Vermont at New London, but it seems likely that it never developed to the degree the railroad had hoped.
Despite this, the pier, which by the mid-1890s had become commonly known as the “Long Dock,” continued to see active use.
In February 1880, the railroad announced plans to build a new, 40-by-350-foot freight house on the pier, which was presumably to handle the continued maritime traffic between New London and the Central Vermont’s pier in New York City. The same month, it purchased the steamer Metropolitan, expanding its fleet.
The railroad sold the Bolivar in 1883, but in 1886 purchased the steamer Doris, which it used alongside the Tillie and Metropolitan. For passenger excursions in the mid-1880s, it leased the Block Island, and by 1893 had acquired the Boston & Maine Railroad’s old steamship City of Richmond, which it used for passenger transport and excursions before it sank alongside the pier in New London on March 10, 1895.
The Mohegan was commissioned in 1896 and was leased by the Central Vermont for its Long Island Sound Service until 1909. Steamship Historical Society of America.
T
he next year, two 280-foot-long, 1,250-ton steamers, Mohawk and Mohegan, were placed in commission, replacing the fleet of older ships. These ships were a joint venture between the Central Vermont Railroad and the New London Steamboat Company, which owned the ships and leased them to the railroad. With these new ships, the railroad estimated that travel time for freight between New York and New London was cut from 10 to 14 hours to just about 7 hours.
The next year, two 280-foot-long, 1,250-ton steamers, Mohawk and Mohegan, were placed in commission, replacing the fleet of older ships. These ships were a joint venture between the Central Vermont Railroad and the New London Steamboat Company, which owned the ships and leased them to the railroad. With these new ships, the railroad estimated that travel time for freight between New York and New London was cut from 10 to 14 hours to just about 7 hours.
Freight on a ship departing New York could be in Montpelier, Vermont within 24 hours or Montreal via a connection with the Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada within 40 hours.
Shortly before the Mohawk and Mohegan were placed in service, the Central Vermont Railroad went bankrupt due to effects of the economic depression in the wake of the Panic of 1893.
The Grand Trunk Railroad, which had a substantial financial interest in the Central Vermont, stepped in and worked out a receivership arrangement which saw the railroad come under the control of the Grand Trunk.
The Central Vermont lost its leases on the Rutland and Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain railroads, but managed to keep the lease on the NLN, which the New Haven Daily Morning Journal and Courier described on March 24, 1896 as “an indispensable link” for the railroad, with “the largest terminal facilities on tide water of any railroad in New England, with possibly the exception of Boston.”
When it emerged from receivership, the company was reorganized as the Central Vermont Railway.
Just before 3 a.m. on March 23, 1900, the freight house at the southern end of the pier caught fire—possibly as a result of employees smoking in the bunk room above the freight house office. The conflagration destroyed 37 freight cars and caused an estimated $50,000 in damage. It was reported that the loss would have been greater, but the nightly boat to New York had departed several hours before and the Mohegan, which had just arrived from New York, had not yet been unloaded.
In October 1900, business on the Central Vermont’s pier was again disrupted; this time by a noteworthy strike of 160 freight handlers (mainly Polish and Slovak), who demanded their pay be equal to the freight handlers on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad’s (NYNH&H) pier in New London.
Two rounds of Italian laborers were brought in from New York City to break the strike, but in both cases the replacement workers—who had allegedly not been told of the strike—walked off the pier in support of the striking freight handlers.
F
inally, the strike was broken, though not fully, by the Central Vermont’s employ of Black stevedores from Brooklyn and white workers gathered from repair shops across the railway’s system.
Finally, the strike was broken, though not fully, by the Central Vermont’s employ of Black stevedores from Brooklyn and white workers gathered from repair shops across the railway’s system.
In 1904 the Central Vermont reconfigured the pier for freight and express service to New York City, adding what the Burlington Daily Free Press of October 12th called a “new and commodious warehouse” on the pier’s east side with covered platforms over railroad tracks along the pier. Changes were already underway, however, for the railway’s express freight steamship line.
After failing to purchase the Mohegan and Mohawk from the New London Steamboat Company in 1901, the Central Vermont soon found that its steamships were owned by its larger competitor, the NYNH&H. By 1904, the New London Steamboat Company had been acquired by the NYNH&H’s steamship subsidiary, the New England Navigation Company.
For several years, the Central Vermont was placed in the unenviable position of having to lease the Mohegan and Mohawk from the New England Navigation Company.
The Central Vermont Transportation Company (CVTC) was formed in November 1908 as a subsidiary of the Central Vermont Railway to manage the movement of freight between New London and Pier 29 on the East River in lower Manhattan. Initial capitalization of the new company was $200,000, which was to be allocated for the purchase of new steamships, preferred over leasing vessels from other companies.
Two new steel steamers, New London and New York, were ordered from the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation of Wilmington, Delaware on October 6, 1908. Launched the following spring, they were placed in service June 24, 1909. The steamships were 278 feet in length, with a cargo capacity of 1,900 tons.
Both sides of the ships had six openings for the unloading and loading of freight alongside the covered platforms of the pier, and railroad historian Robert C. Jones notes that their acquisition led to “greatly increased tonnage [being] handled between” New York and New London.
The New London and New York were built for the Central Vermont’s CVTC subsidiary in 1908-1909 and plied Long Island Sound until after World War II. Steamship Historical Society of America.
A map produced from the Interstate Commerce Commission’s 1917 valuation of the Central Vermont’s system. The freight house built in 1904 can be seen on the northeast side of the Central Vermont’s pier (top), while the Connecticut State Pier can be seen to the east. Central Vermont Railway Historical Society.
According to a 1913 report by the New York Mayor’s Market Commission, shipments into New York by the CVTC in 1912 included “about 19,000 tons of hay, 39,000 tons of condensed milk, 3,000 tons of flour, and about 200 tons of maple sugar and syrup.”
The Central Vermont Railway and its parent, the Grand Trunk (GT), had greater plans for the CVTC than just ferrying cargo between New London and New York as “New London itself originated very little business,” according to historian Jones. In 1912, the GT began a line from Palmer, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island to break the NYNH&H’s monopoly on that port.
To provide fast steamer service from Providence to New York, the CVTC ordered two new steel twin-screw passenger and freight steamships from Harlan & Hollingsworth in early 1912 for what the CVTC promoted as their overnight “Sound Service.” These new ships, the Narragansett and Manhattan, had access doors similar to the New London and New York for express freight but were primarily built for passenger service between New York City and New England ports such as Providence and Boston.
The vessels were completed on December 28, 1913, but were not delivered until almost two years later, in July 1915. According to the Wilmington Evening Journal, the delay had been caused by the CVTC’s financial receivership and awaiting the completion of a terminal in Boston, but the situation was more complex. The new rail line to Providence and accompanying passenger service for the CVTC never materialized.
B
oth had been the brainchild of Charles M. Hays, president of the GT and Central Vermont Railway. After he died in the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, the effort’s primary advocate was gone. A subsequent deal with the NYNH&H and the outbreak of World War I doomed the plan.
Both had been the brainchild of Charles M. Hays, president of the GT and Central Vermont Railway. After he died in the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, the effort’s primary advocate was gone. A subsequent deal with the NYNH&H and the outbreak of World War I doomed the plan.
The two passenger ships sat moored at the Central Vermont’s pier in New London for several years before being purchased by the United States Navy in 1918 for use as transports in the English Channel.
As the Central Vermont’s plans for a wider-steamship network came and went, their pier in New London was joined by new pier to the east.
Between 1911 and 1913, the State of Connecticut formulated plans to build a large pier in New London adjacent to the Central Vermont’s facilities as part of a plan of economic development for the port. The intention was that the million-dollar State Pier would provide modern facilities for trans-Atlantic steamships.
According to the proposals, ships would unload sugar and other products at the pier for shipment to Eastern Canada via the Central Vermont Railway, while loading Canadian grain that had been shipped to New London on the railway for export—a plan eerily similar to the original intentions for the Central Vermont Pier. The 1020-foot-long, 200-foot-wide pier was completed in 1914.
Unfortunately, while the State Pier saw some traffic during and immediately after World War I, it failed to live up to expectations due to reliance on the Central Vermont Railway (it had no direct connections to New London’s other railroad, the NYNH&H) and lack of exports from the city. In addition to providing the Central Vermont another source of traffic, competition of the new pier appears to have led the railway to undertake “extensive repairs” to their pier in New London according to Robert C. Jones, as well as dredging the west channel along the pier.
February 1916 saw another noteworthy strike on the Central Vermont Pier. Around 175 of the railway’s freight handlers struck for a pay increase to 25 cents an hour. The Central Vermont brought in strikebreakers from New York City, but on February 15th around 75 striking workers attacked the strikebreakers, injuring more than 40, some so severely that they needed to be evacuated to New York.
The 1917 valuation of the Central Vermont Railway system by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) provides a snapshot of the pier and some of the facilities present at the time, as well as the five other wharves or docks owned by the Central Vermont in New London during the World War I era.
The New London Police were brought in temporarily to protect the remaining strikebreakers, but the city refused to allow the Central Vermont to bring in Pinkerton Agency operatives, forcing an end to the affair. The railway met the strikers’ demands and a pay raise to 22 cents an hour was given. On April 26, 1916, the Norwich Bulletin reported that pay was further increased to 25 cents an hour “on account of the increased cost of living and the demand for labor.” Around 70 to 80 workers launched a second strike for increased pay on June 30, 1916, but strikebreakers and some returning workers appears to have effectively ended it within a week.
The pier, referenced in the valuation summary by its “Long Dock” name, was far and away the longest and widest of the wharves or docks, with the next largest, the Water Street Wharf, measuring 462 feet by 28 feet. The Long Dock was still used for coal shipments, with an 840-foot-long trestle on the west side of the pier for loading coal from railcars onto ships, locomotives, or other railcars, as well as a derrick (crane) with its accompanying hoisting machinery for unloading ships full of coal. The east side of the pier was occupied by the freight house built in 1904 as well as a bunkhouse for workers.
T
he American entry into World War I saw limited direct impacts to the Central Vermont and its pier compared to other American railroads. As with other railroads, the federal government took over operations from January 1918 to March 1920 through the United States Railroad Administration. Robert C. Jones notes that the war “did not appreciably affect the operations of the Central Vermont, as armaments and other goods produced for this great conflict more often than not found their way to the seacoast by other routes.”
The American entry into World War I saw limited direct impacts to the Central Vermont and its pier compared to other American railroads. As with other railroads, the federal government took over operations from January 1918 to March 1920 through the United States Railroad Administration. Robert C. Jones notes that the war “did not appreciably affect the operations of the Central Vermont, as armaments and other goods produced for this great conflict more often than not found their way to the seacoast by other routes.”
In New London, the pier continued to operate as usual, while the neighboring State Pier was taken over by the U.S. Navy for the duration of the war. Despite the lack of disruption, the total tonnage handled by the port as a whole (even with the new State Pier) plummeted from 924,000 tons in 1913 to 425,000 tons in 1920 according to a 1945 report by the Connecticut Post-War Planning Board.
When the Central Vermont was returned to civilian control in March 1920, the railway faced a budgetary crisis that had afflicted it since at least the mid-1910s—the increasing costs of labor and coal left the company with a deficit of several hundred thousand dollars each year.
The Central Vermont managed to stay afloat through much of the 1920s despite this deficit, in part due to the good business climate as well as the assistance of its new parent company—Canadian National Railways (CN). CN was formed in the early 1920s through the nationalization and merger of several Canadian railroads, including the GT. After GT’s absorption, CN continued to own a majority stake in the Central Vermont into the 1990s.
In 1923, a new coaling plant for locomotives was built in New London to replace an antiquated coal trestle, likely the one on the Central Vermont Pier. While still operating at a deficit for much of the decade, the railway was able to improve its financial situation somewhat, and in 1926 the railway’s freight revenues were the largest in the company’s history.
The same year, according to the Connecticut Post-War Planning Board’s 1945 report, the total value of the cargo handled by the port of New London reached a record $301,200,000 and the following year, the port would handle the highest annual tonnage since 1913—767,000 tons of cargo, 45 percent of which (344,516 tons) was handled by the ships of the CVTC. In November 1927 a disastrous flood heavily damaged the railway and drove it into bankruptcy once again in December of that year.
An early 20th century photograph of the Long Dock with one of the Central Vermont’s steamships moored alongside. New London Maritime Society - Harold Cone Collection.
While some branch lines were abandoned, the Central Vermont was given clearance to rebuild much of its line by the CN, and in February 1930 the reorganized company exited receivership.
4
1932 - 1945
Rocket Fast Freight Service
A
report submitted to the New London Planning Board in 1928 by Herbert S. Swan, George W. Tuttle, and Erwin T. Muller extensively described the city’s railroad and port facilities, including those operated by the Central Vermont.
A report submitted to the New London Planning Board in 1928 by Herbert S. Swan, George W. Tuttle, and Erwin T. Muller extensively described the city’s railroad and port facilities, including those operated by the Central Vermont.
In addition to the railway’s downtown freight station, its “extensive freight yard,” and connections with both the State Pier and the NYNH&H, the Central Vermont Pier (called the “Long Wharf” in the report) with its 10 parallel railroad tracks was highlighted. According to the report, the west side of the pier was equipped for the shipping of coal and building materials to points along the Central Vermont system, with the facilities built in 1923 including a coal elevator, hopper, and scales. In the previous year, 1927, a total of 86,528 tons of bituminous coal had been unloaded at the pier, “most of it for railroad use.”
On the east side of the pier, cargo and less-than-carload freight was transferred between the daily freighters to and from New York and the railway, via the long, covered platform of the freight house. On the pier, less-than-carload freight from New York was either transferred to freight cars of the Central Vermont and the NYNH&H or was loaded onto carts or trucks for local distribution.
Another view of the New York, possibly in the 1930s. The ship was one of three used for the Central Vermont’s Rocket Fast Freight service. Steamship Historical Society of America.
The report also detailed the freight handled by the Central Vermont at the pier and explicitly highlighted the issues which resulted in less-than-expected use of both the Central Vermont and State Piers.
Due to the very indirect westbound route from New York to Chicago, the ICC allowed the Central Vermont and its partner railroads to charge lower freight handling rates than a direct route (known as differential freight rate), allowing them to compete with railroads which had a shorter, more direct link between the cities.
The report noted that despite bringing “a considerable amount of westbound freight… profit on this business [was] relatively small.” Because a similar reduced rate was not permitted for eastbound traffic, the tonnage brought to New York from the west by the Central Vermont was substantially smaller. In February 1928, the CVTC’s nightly freighters from New York City brought 18,841 tons of freight to New London, while the nightly boats leaving New London for Manhattan only carried 3,932 tons that month.
Commerce continued apace at the pier into the 1930s, though the increase in trucking began to substantially eat into the railway’s freight revenue. To more effectively compete against trucking, the Central Vermont inaugurated its Rocket Fast Freight service on July 6, 1932. The Rocket Fast Freights combined the New York-New London boat service with express trains and trucks to provide a one-stop competitive delivery service for less-than-carload freight traveling between New York and inland New England points.
Two pickups and drop-offs could be made daily. For example, less-than-carload freight would be collected from points in the New York area such as Brooklyn, Hoboken, Newark, or Harrison, and depart early in the morning from the Central Vermont’s Manhattan Pier 29 on a steamer bound for the Central Vermont Pier in New London.
Before departure, the freight had been loaded on special trailers that enabled quick transfer to/from trucks and loading through the side doors of the freighter. Arriving at New London in the afternoon, it could be loaded on trucks or an express train which would make it to White River Junction, half-way up Vermont, by 12:15 a.m.
1930 aerial photograph showing the Central Vermont’s Long Dock with one of their freighters and several trains present. In the foreground a squadron of US Navy destroyers is moored along the State Pier. National Archives and Records Administration.
On its way north, this train would pass a southbound express which would arrive at the Central Vermont Pier by 8:42 p.m., allowing delivery in New York before nine the next morning. Once at a distribution station, the freight would be transferred to trucks for direct delivery to customers. While the Central Vermont did not own the trucks, instead using outside contractors, all were branded with the Rocket Fast Freight logo.
Overall, the service was a success, and regained at least some of the freight traffic that had been lost to trucking companies. By summer 1937 the Central Vermont was reporting that the tonnage of merchandise handled by the railway was more than 50 percent greater than in 1932.
While the overall economic recovery during the Great Depression was also a probable factor, the railway proudly pointed to the Rocket Fast Freight service as a critical factor in the April 24, 1937, issue of Railway Age. In response to the success of the service, the Central Vermont began renovations on their New London pier, the “Lower side” of which the War Department had noted was “in poor condition” in a 1937 report by the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors.
The Central Vermont, like most American railroads, had a bad year in 1938—despite rate increases, freight revenues declined 22 percent for the railway.
The railway relocated tracks on the pier to facilitate easier transfer between ships and trains and constructed a new, 975-foot-long, 22-foot-wide platform on the pier. In November of that year, when the NYNH&H abandoned its maritime lines, the CVTC (re)acquired the Mohawk, which it had built in 1896, for $20,000 and renamed it the Vermont.
Even worse, the Central Vermont and its facilities in New London were heavily damaged by the hurricane of September 1938. Wind gusts of 120-miles-per-hour blew the newly reacquired Vermont ashore, while a storm surge flooded the railyard behind the pier with four feet of water, costing the railway more than $200,000 to repair the damage.
5
1945 - 1990s
The End of the Line
T
he entry of the United States into World War II after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor signaled a rapid change for the Central Vermont.
The entry of the United States into World War II after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor signaled a rapid change for the Central Vermont.
A strike on the New London pier was called off “in the interest of national defense” the day following the attack according to a December 8th article in the St. Albans Daily Messenger and traffic patterns were interrupted.
While “Lean Time[s]” were reported on the railway in July 1942 according to the Barre Daily Times, the Central Vermont soon found itself an important link for troop transports north and south from Canada and as a crucial “bridge line,” ferrying freight the CN was carrying from western Canada to other railroads that would take it on to destinations such as New York or Boston.
Unfortunately, the Central Vermont suffered from a severe manpower shortage during the war, with a lack of stevedores resulting in the boats between New York and New London often leaving port before they were fully loaded, with freight left sitting on the pier.
A 1950 map produced by the Interstate Commerce Commission depicting the facilities on the Central Vermont’s pier. Note the name Long Dock used on the map.. Central Vermont Railway Historical Society.
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s war-related traffic fell off in 1944 and 1945, the Central Vermont’s revenues also declined. The railway’s financial prospects received a rosy treatment in an illustrated feature by William L. Rohde published in the August 1947 issue of Railway Magazine, particularly due to the differential freight-rate.
As war-related traffic fell off in 1944 and 1945, the Central Vermont’s revenues also declined. The railway’s financial prospects received a rosy treatment in an illustrated feature by William L. Rohde published in the August 1947 issue of Railway Magazine, particularly due to the differential freight-rate.
The pre-war less-than-carload business had apparently been resumed, as the article profiling the railway opened by following a shipment of “six cartons of fine briar pipes” from New York to Chicago on the CVTC’s ships and then the Central Vermont north into Canada.
The pipes were driven to Pier 29 in Manhattan, where they were loaded “with hundreds of [other shipments] into the belly of a small ship painted a funereal black.” According to the article, there was enough freight to warrant one trip a day in each direction between New York and New London.
Ironically, this profile was published more than a half-year after the Central Vermont had permanently discontinued the use of its freighter fleet. Stevedores on the railway’s New York and New London piers went on strike on November 1, 1946 demanding a 40-hour workweek and a 10 percent pay increase.
After the strike dragged on for nearly two months, the Central Vermont announced on December 23, 1946, that they were indefinitely suspending their marine freight operations between New London and New York. While the railway denied reports in late January 1947 that the discontinuation was permanent, the service was officially terminated in April 1947.
Though the strike was the final nail in the coffin for the fleet of freighters, according to a 1962 history by A. B. Hopper and T. Kearney, the Central Vermont had already decided that due to “the type of traffic offered and increasing costs,” it was “uneconomical to continue operation” of the steamer service. The three remaining vessels were sold for scrap in 1948.
The Central Vermont continued to use the pier primarily for the storage of freight cars in the following decades, though occasional shipments of lumber or copper were unloaded at the pier during the 1980s. Most of the remaining buildings (excepting a two-story office built as part of the 1937 renovations) were demolished in the 1970s.
In 1995, CN sold the old NLN rail line to RailTex, but the old Central Vermont Railway company retained ownership of the New London Pier until 2001, when it sold it to the State of Connecticut.
Where is the Central Vermont Railroad Pier now?
The Central Vermont Railroad Pier was altered in 2022-2024 by the Connecticut Port Authority to accommodate the redeveloped State Pier Terminal in the Port of New London. The pier now forms the southwestern section of the redeveloped terminal.
This website was produced by the Connecticut Port Authority to satisfy a stipulation in a Memorandum of Agreement to address the adverse effects of the State Pier Infrastructure Improvements Project on historic properties, including the Central Vermont Railroad Pier. The Memorandum of Agreement was signed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Connecticut Port Authority, and Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office.
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References
Bolles, John R.
1877 New London, a Seaport for the North and West, and Outport of New York: Its Great Commercial Advantages, Convenient, Ample and Cheap Wharf Room, Manufacturing Facilities, Abundant Supply of Pure Water, Healthfulness, &c. Power Press of George E. Starr, New London, CT.
Butler, Martin J.
2000 Central Vermont Transportation Company, The Other New London Line: The Last of the New York Steamers. Steamboat Bill 58(2):89–113.
Clouette, Bruce
2004 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Central Vermont Railroad Pier, New London Connecticut. Archaeological and Historical Services, Inc., Storrs, CT.
Connecticut Post-War Planning Board
1945 Preliminary Staff Memorandum: Connecticut’s Ports. Connecticut Post-War Planning Board, Hartford, CT. http://hdl.handle.net/11134/30002:5349319, accessed October 18, 2022.
Lenzi, Richard
2019 Facing Toward the Dawn: The Italian Anarchists of New London. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY.
Karr, Ronald Dale
2017 The Rail Lines of Southern New England. 2nd ed. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA
Marshall, Benjamin Tinkham (editor)
1922 A Modern History of New London County, Connecticut, Vol.1. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, NY.
Jones, Robert C.
1981a The Central Vermont Railway: A Yankee Tradition. Volume I: “The Early Years, 1830–1886”. Sundance Publications, Silverton, CO.
1981b The Central Vermont Railway: A Yankee Tradition. Volume II: “The Busy Years, 1887–1910”. Sundance Publications, Silverton, CO.
1981c The Central Vermont Railway: A Yankee Tradition. Volume III: “Austerity and Prosperity, 1911–1927”. Sundance Publications, Silverton, CO.
1981d The Central Vermont Railway: A Yankee Tradition. Volume IV: “Flood and Depression, 1927–1940”. Sundance Publications, Silverton, CO.
1982 The Central Vermont Railway: A Yankee Tradition. Volume V: “The War years and Dieselization, 1941–1960”. Sundance Publications, Silverton, CO.
1992 The Reading Railroad: History of a Coal Age Empire, Volume 2: The Twentieth Century. Garrigues House, Laury’s Station, Pennsylvania.
Wardell, David, and Taft DeVere
2007 Central Vermont’s New London Freight House: The Final Years. Ambassador 16(3):21–22. (Ambassador is the publication of the Central Vermont Railway Historical Society.)