Woodside Branch

The Flushing and North Side Railroad is a former railroad on Long Island built by Conrad Poppenhusen as a replacement for the former New York and Flushing Railroad. The railroad was established in 1868, was merged with the Central Railroad of Long Island in 1874 to form the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad, and was finally acquired by the Long Island Rail Road in 1876. Today the main line is known as the Port Washington Branch of the Long Island Rail Road.

Before the Flushing and North Side, most of the line was originally built by the Flushing Railroad, in 1854 from Hunters Point in Long Island City to Flushing, before the LIRR opened its line to Long Island City. Chartered on March 3, 1852, it was the first railroad on Long Island not to be part of the Long Island Rail Road. The company was taken over by Oliver Charlick and reorganized in 1859 as the New York and Flushing Railroad, and established a subsidiary known as the "North Shore Railroad" to extend the line from Flushing to Great Neck in 1866 (see below). Originally intending to run further east to Roslyn, Oyster Bay, and even Huntington, the NY&F's plans were thwarted by the LIRR who reached those destination first, as well as poor service that the company became known for. Due to the NY&F's reputation, the residents of Flushing convinced the LIRR to incorporate the Flushing and Woodside Railroad on February 24, 1864 to build a competing branch to Flushing.

Despite service complaints, New York and Flushing established a subsidiary called the North Shore Railroad of Long Island in 1866 which extended the line from Flushing to Great Neck Unfortunately, the NY&F realized that they could not survive the competition, and sold their line (and their lease on the North Shore Railroad of Long Island.) to the LIRR in 1867. The LIRR benefitted by preventing the South Side Railroad from using the New York and Flushing access to the LIRR's Long Island City terminal, and by keeping the North Side Railroad from extending east to Huntington in competition with the LIRR. The LIRR also stopped construction on the incomplete Flushing and Woodside.

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