This Memorial Day, Garden City and the other communities along the LIRR's Hempstead line will commemorate the centennial of the electrification of the Hempstead line 100 years ago. The LIRR carries over 282,000 people daily and the majority move on electric-powered trains. But this has not always been the case, and this story is a brief history of how Garden City participated in this.

The LIRR has been part of Long Island's growth since the 1830s. Alexander Turney Stewart's private railroad to Garden City was acquired by the LIRR after Stewart died. In the age before automobiles, the railroad was everything and Garden City needed it to grow. However, it was evident that steam locomotives with their soot and noise could never properly serve and grow Long Island, especially for commuters and their bedroom communities.

By the start of the 20th century, electric motive power for trains was under serious consideration. The LIRR was a leader in that thinking, especially since its then parent, the Pennsylvania Railroad, planned Penn Station in New York City with tunnels from New Jersey and Queens into Manhattan.

After years of experiments, including whether a third rail (electric) or overhead wire (caternary) was the way to go, the LIRR decided on the third rail. In an interesting historical tidbit, the little used spur that most today know only for its use by the circus train, had a caternary overhead installed as a test - and then torn out when the third rail was decided on. Garden City and Hempstead were two strong growing towns, in fact the president of the LIRR at that time, Ralph Peters, opted to build a magnificent house on the "Hill in Garden City" in 1905. That home still stands at the corner of 11th Street and Carteret Place.

Basically pioneering in its construction, the LIRR opted for the Hempstead branch to receive the first Long Island service (maybe because Peters lived here now?) With much fanfare, the first train powered by electricity came out from Floral Park, Nassau Boulevard, Garden City, and triumphantly entered the terminal at Hempstead. The white flags on the first car indicated a "special" and indeed it was.

Garden City and the other towns where electrification now existed were spared the difficulties that the noise and smoke that the steam engines caused. Even today when the occasional diesel comes out this way for freight purposes, witnesses can attest to the pollution and noise it causes. Now we hear the safety horn blasts, but that is another story.