SUBURBAN ELECTRIC ROADS.
Within a radius of a few miles from Buffalo there are many thriving towns. Naturally, with so many steam railroads running in all directions from this point, residents of these towns enjoy excellent railroad accommodations in traveling to and from the city. But the swift pace of present progress is all too rapid for the old way. Electric lines to suburban towns are being built or projected in surprising number. An electric line to the city of Tonawanda, connecting with the Buffalo street railroad system, and in fact being an extension of it, has been in successful operation since early in the present year (1892). It will be extended through to Niagara Falls. Two other lines of electric railroad to Tonawanda have been surveyed and active preparations are being made to build them. Both will connect with the Buffalo system, and in time will be extended to Niagara Falls. One of these has secured a very favorable route, out Delaware Avenue in a direct air line to Tonawanda, through a delightful residence district.
An electric railroad is being built to Lancaster and Depew, the latter being the new city of the New York Central Railroad just outside of Buffalo, where the Central’s locomotive shops, the Gould Car Coupler Works and other great industrial enterprises are in progress. This line will be in operation by September of this year.
Still another electric line is to be built to East Aurora, the prettiest of Erie County villages, where the famous Hamlin and Jewett stock farms are located. C. J. Hamlin, the millionaire horseman, and owner of Belle Hamlin, is one of the prominent men interested in this line.
Strong companies have also been formed to build electric lines to Hamburg, Williamsville and other suburban towns.
All of these enterprises indicate the profound belief which capitalists have in Buffalo’s future. Most of them were brought into life through the stimulating influence of cheap electric power from Niagara Falls. Those interested in these enterprises knew that cheap electric power meant tremendous and rapid growth for the city, and that the tide of prosperity would sweep out far enough to reach all towns lying contiguous to the city, and whose prosperity is part of the prosperity of Buffalo. They also knew that cheap electric power from Niagara Falls meant cheap motive power for their roads and greatly reduced cost of operation.
It is a modest assertion that the silent, swift, all-powerful currents of electricity flowing into Buffalo from Niagara will touch every craft, every branch of industry. It will quicken all these into renewed activity and point a thousand new ways for the employment of money, brains and muscle. It will give us light, heat and refrigeration, and power for the mightiest and most delicate machinery.
The smoke cloud of industry that hovers over and shrouds the manufacturing district of every great city, will gradually lift from ours as the consumption of coal gives place to smokeless electric power. In a few years it will be all gone, and Buffalo, the “Electric City,” will be famed as the cleanest and healthiest city in the world.