New York State Transportation Networks - 1800s

 Gotta love old maps - there is so much to learn from them! The David Rumsey site has a wonderful collection. Be sure to click the links provided to go to the site and zoom in and pan

1883 Canals

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1879 - Railroads

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More Railroad Maps

There's a wonderful site called Streamliner Memories that's filled with railroad memorabilia from the "Sliver Age" of streamliners. All types of Railroad Passenger Brochures, Dining Car Menus, Travel Advertisements can be found there.

These maps are screenshots of PDFs, Use the PDF link for higher resolution and/or downloading.

• Click on any map for an enlargement
• Click on the Source Link to view the PDF

Source

The Chessie - 1960
(Chesapeake & Ohio RR) 

The Delaware & Hudson RR in the 1950s

Northern Pacific (Red) - Burlington (Brown)
1957

New York Central - 1953 brochure
Year-Round Travel Guide
Source

More from the NYC Travel Guide

Union Pacific RR - 1966

Shekomeko, New York

Shekomeko was a small historic hamlet in eastern Dutchess County, New York. Originally a village of Mahican Native Americans, the name Shekomeko was derived from their Algonquian language: she, -che (from mishe or k'che), 'great,' and comaco, 'house,' or 'enclosed place'—'the great lodge,', or 'the great village.'" 

(click on any graphic to enlarge)

Native Americans and the Moravian Mission 

The village has a fascinating history.  It was Moravian mission and in the summer 1742, Shekomeko was established as the first native Christian congregation in America. The increasing Moravian influence and their success with the Native Americans led to resentment by European settlers in the area. False rumors of atrocities were spread and the authorities were petitioned to intervene. A law was enacted on September 21, 1744 forbidding anyone from residing with Indians in order to Christianize them.

Shekomeko village and Moravian mission, 1745

By 1746, area settlers petitioned the governor to issue to them a warrant authorizing the killing of Shekomeko Indians. Shortly thereafter the mission was abandoned and the ten remaining families--a mere 44 persons where all that remained of the original 8,000 member tribe 100 years before--sought refuge in nearby Connecticut, while others traveled to Pennsylvania to be closer to the established Moravian settlements there.

A Railroad is Built

Construction on the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad began in 1868, and by 1869 the line reached north to Pine Plains. Construction then continued eastward through Shekomeko reaching Millerton in 1871. In 1877 the railroad was reorganized as the Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad (ND&C). In 1905 the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad acquired the ND&C and in 1907 merged it into the Central New England Railway.

Click any image to enlarge it

Sadly in 1925 the railroad line from Shekomeko east to Millerton was abandoned. Then in 1935, the line from Shekomeko west to Pine Plains  was abandoned and by 1938, the entire railroad line was abandoned. Traces of the roadbed can still be found in places.

Today

There's little left of the village now as this google aerial illustrates but there is a monument dedicated to the Moravian Christian Mission that was dedicated by the NY Moravian Historical Society in Oct 5, 1859.

Photo Credit: WindingRoad

Further Info

The Moravian Mission
(The Little Nine Partners Historical Society)

Shekomeko:
The Mohican Village that Shaped the Moravian Missionary World 
^ (excellent)

Shekomeko, New York (Wikipedia)

The Dutchess and Columbia Railroad
(The Little Nine Partners Historical Society)

History of the Moravian Church (Wikipedia)

The Coronavirus Pandemic

The Coronavirus Pandemic

A very thoughtful graphic  (click to enlarge)

3D Simulations

OSU researchers examine social distancing models, encourage caution 

Link >

A 3D model of a person coughing in an indoor environment

How an aerosol cloud travels in the air. Link >

Mapping the Invisible Spread of Coronavirus Through Simulations

Link >

History Quirks

Fun facts  - a few bizarre and unique lesser-known historical tidbits of the past. Rain or shine, a good read!

• Ritual beer binges
• Fake maps
• Free Love in the mid 1800s!
• Urine - a Roman Hygiene
• The Dutch had the hots for (?)
• and more...

History Quirks >

Reservoirs East of the Hudson River

New York City gets it water from a variety of sources. Some of it comes from a series of reservoirs and lakes north of the city.

History of the Water Systems

As the population of New York City grew in the 19th century, so did the need for water. The first use of water from Westchester County came from the old Croton Dam (forming what was called Croton Lake), which was completed in 1842. In the 1880s, the City faced increasing demands for water and therefore needed to enlarge the Croton Reservoir to meet that need. 

The enlargement of the Croton Reservoir (with the construction of the New Croton Dam  and the forming of the New Croton Reservoir) was completed in 1906 as a part of a system of reservoirs designed to bring water from Putnam and Westchester Counties (the Croton Watershed) to New York City. It is called the New Croton Reservoir because the Croton Reservoir was actually the name of a made made reservoir right in the heart of Manhattan - Link.

Cross River Reservoir

The Cross River Reservoir was  put into service in 1908. The resulting body of water is one of twelve reservoirs in the Croton Watershed, the southernmost of New York City's watersheds.

Titicus Reservoir

The Titicus Dam was constructed between 1890 and 1895 and the reservoir was placed into service in 1893.

The Croton River

As you can see from this 1858 map, what is now inundated with large large bodies of water was just a simple river system back in the mid 19th Century,

The Croton Reservoirs today...

Muscoot Reservoir

The reservoir was completed in 1905 and serves as the main collecting point for all the reservoirs in the Croton Watershed (except for the New Croton Reservoir, which later receives its water).

New Croton Reservoir

The New Croton Reservoir is the collecting point for water from all reservoirs in the Croton Watershed. In 1842 the Croton River, a tributary of the Hudson River, was impounded by the Old Croton Dam to create Croton Lake. It was New York City's first source of water beyond its city limits and its waters traveled by aqueduct to the Croton Distributing Reservoir in midtown Manhattan.

In 1905 the New Croton Dam was completed, expanding the existing area of impounded water.

Further Info

• Cross River Reservoir
• Muscoot Reservoir
• New Croton Reservoir
• Titicus Reservoir
• New York City water supply system

Hidden Crater in the Catskills

Did you know about the "crater" in the Catskills?

The circular pattern made by the two creeks surrounding Panther Mountain suggest that it might have a different origin from other Catskill peaks. In the early 1970s, a geologist of the New York State Geological Survey at the New York State Museum in Albany wondered if the stream pattern indicated an impact crater buried beneath the surface.

The impact is estimated to have occurred 375 million years ago, during the Devonian period, when much of what is now the Catskills was either river delta or a shallow sea. The crater lies 2,640 feet below the surface, is 6 miles wide, and lies directly under the mountain. The meteorite that struck is believed to have been roughly one-half mile  wide, striking with a force equivalent to 11 trillion tons of TNT. -Wikipedia

Further Info

• Map >
• Panther Mountain circular structure >