[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 108 (Tuesday, August 4, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1534-E1535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     COMMEMORATING THE 175TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DELAWARE AND HUDSON

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 4, 1998

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, the Delaware and Hudson, headquartered in 
Clifton Park, New York, is the oldest continuously operated 
transportation company in North America. The

[[Page E1535]]

D&H has had many memorable events in its proud 175-year history;
  The New York State Legislature authorized the Delaware and Hudson 
Canal Company to operate on April 23rd, 1823. By 1828 the D&H completed 
construction of a 108 mile canal. The D&H soon developed a 
revolutionary gravity railroad. In 1830, that 16-mile gravity railroad 
constituted two-thirds of America's 23 miles of rail track. On August 
8, 1829 the D&H performed a test run of the first steam locomotive to 
operate in America.
  In 1840 the D&H became the first transportation company traded on the 
New York Stock Exchange. In 1867 the New York State Legislature 
authorized the D&H to acquire and operate railroads in New York State. 
In 1870 the D&H extended the scope of its rail operation to the Port of 
Albany. By 1875 it had constructed a rail line to Canada along with 
west side of Lake Champlain.
  As railroads expanded, the importance of canals diminished and in 
1898 the D&H moved its last load of coal by canal. A year later the New 
York State Legislature changed D&H's charter deleting ``Canal,'' 
signifying the end of a remarkable period in American transportation 
history. In the early years of the 1900s the D&H expanded its presence 
in New York through the operation of steamship lines on Lake George and 
Lake Champlain, through expanded rail passenger service, and through 
the purchase of two luxury hotels; the Ft. William Henry in Lake George 
and the Champlain Hotel south of Plattsburgh.
  In September of 1901, Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt retreated to 
his beloved Adirondacks. He believed that President McKinley was well 
on his way to recovery from being shot in Buffalo five days earlier. 
While the Vice-President set up camp deep in the woods near Lake 
Colden, an urgent message was dispatched to North Creek by telegraph 
and from there, by horseman, that the President had suffered a relapse 
and was dying. The D&H dispatched a train from Saratoga to North Creek 
to await the Vice-President. When he arrived he was handed a telegram 
as he swung aboard the train. In the coach, Roosevelt tore open the 
telegram. President McKinley was dead. Roosevelt rode in silence along 
the curvy track to Saratoga, the 26th President of the United States.
  The Golden Years of the D&H began in 1907 followed by 30 years of 
unparalleled success. The D&H rebuilt physical plant, re-equipped the 
road with new and improved locomotives and filled its investment 
portfolio with blue chip stocks and bonds that provided financial 
stability throughout World War I and the Great Depression. The D&H's 
leadership and equipment experiments and locomotive design became the 
industry standard. In 1915 the Delaware and Hudson began construction 
of an ornate riverfront headquarters in Albany. Completed in 1918, this 
classic Flemish Gothic structure contains the largest working 
weathervane in the United States and is currently home to the 
administrative headquarters of the State University of New York.
  Beginning in 1938 the D&H transformed itself from a slow moving coal 
line to a bridge route for fast-moving merchandise shipments. It ran a 
fleet of powerful, fast-running steam locomotives known as 
``Challengers.'' With the advent of World War II, a flood of freight 
and passenger traffic came to the nation's railroads. Distinguished 
passengers on the D&H line during this period included King George VI 
and Queen Elizabeth and Winston Churchill. In 1953 the last stream 
locomotive ran on the D&H line ending 134 years of steam operations 
that had begun with the historic test run of the Stourbridge Lion in 
1829.
  Passenger service, which suffered great declines after the War, 
resulted eventually in the creation of AMTRAK to replace the passenger 
operations run by the freight railroads. On May 1, 1971, the D&H made 
it last passenger run from New York to Montreal. In the early 1970s six 
of the seven freight railroads in the northeast were in bankruptcy. 
Only the D&H was not. Its commitment to efficiency allowed it to 
operate at a modest profit while all others failed. When Congress 
created Conrail from the ashes of the six bankrupt railroads, the D&H 
system was reconstituted in a manner that was ostensibly to provide 
competition to Conrail. However, the failure of Congress to provide 
access to key points in the northeast doomed the D&H to a non-
competitive status that it could not sustain in the absence of a 
partnership with a railroad that could provide overhead traffic.
  In 1991, the D&H was purchased by Canadian Pacific Railway. Its 
infrastructure was upgraded and it continues to exist as a separate New 
York corporation--uninterrupted for 175 years.

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