The railroads in southern Dutchess County terminated at ferries at Dutchess Junction and
Fishkill Landing and railroads across southern Columbia County terminated at a ferry at
Rhinecliff. Even the largest and fastest ferries were inefficient and were restricted to the
Hudson River's ice-free months.
No sooner did railroads begin ferry operations then serious talk started about
bridging the Hudson somewhere in the Mid-Hudson region where the river was narrow. That
effort focused on Poughkeepsie and in 1888 the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge was opened.
A rail connection between Poughkeepsie and Hopewell Junction was only a matter of time.
Thus the Dutchess County Railroad was completed in 1892, allowing for a second through
route from New England. There already existed a line angling down from The Hartford and
Connecticut Western connection in Millerton.
Hopewell Junction now became a spot from which trains departed in four different directions:
and now to the northwest via the new Dutchess County Railroad.
Visit the past of Hopewell by viewing the old pictures.
The map to the left shows the Dutchess County lines in 1895.
The map is pieced together from two sections of a larger map that had the southern portion of
the area covered here in an inset.
