By Alfonso A. Castillo, Newsday; April 23, 2019
On April 24, 1834, 12 men signed their names on a state charter establishing a new rail line stretching from Greenport “through or near the middle of Long Island to a point on the water’s edge in the village of Brooklyn.” The new corporation would be known as The Long Island Railroad Company.
Now, rail historians from across Long Island are celebrating the birthday Wednesday of the nation’s oldest railroad by looking back on some of the important milestones in the Long Island Rail Road’s — the way it now spells its name — 185-year history, and looking ahead to one of the its most ambitious expansions since its inception.