The Airline Rails to Trails is being extended into East Hampton CT

[BellToyBoy]

There is an article in the Patch about the Airline Rails to Trails in East Hampton being extended.

This may not seem Bell Toy related unless you know the history of this area. The Airline Railroad helped make East Hampton more accessible by railroad. This in turn helped some of the local industries and hotels on Lake Pocotopaug gain another way of access  to and from New York. Most of the bell toy makers had sales offices in New York.

The Airline went right through the heart of East Hampton. Early leaders in town including David W. Watrous banded together to sign a petition asking the Railroad to put in a trestle rather than an earthen embankment. The railroad did put in a trestle but it was later buried in an embankment.

In addition to being happy to see the Airline trail extended I'm glad to see the area below the trestle being cleaned up. The East Hampton dam which is just below and downstream from the remaining trestle once helped create the pond and stream diversion for powering the water wheel at the East Hampton Bell Company and later Gong Bell. I have a post card photo of the falls posted on this web site. I've also seen how neglected, forgotten and trashed this area has become. At one time Mr Conklin wrote on a post card looking from the trestle over the East Hampton Bell Co. and Gong Bell, "Isn't this a pretty view?" The buildings of the East Hampton Bell Co. and Gong Bell Co. are long gone so it will never look the same as it did then, but it could be a pretty view again.

This past weekend my wife and I were at a festival bicycling on the D&H Rail Trail ( Delaware and Hudson Rail-Trail in Pennsylvania ) which is part of the Lackawana River Heritage Trail. We biked a 44 miles. There was a huge festival with music and many activities we missed as we had taken on a longer ride than many others. The volunteers that made that happen can't be thanked enough.

After the terrible news of the Bevin factory fire, it's great to read a story of the East Hampton community banding together to do wonderful things.

The stereocard view shows an embankment and the trestle over Main Street East Hampton CT. The pretty view above shows the Watrous Mfg. Co. in the background behind their pond. The pond would later be filled in to make room for the Gong Bell Co. expansion. There is now a parking lot for the library where the Watrous Mfg. Co. once stood at 103 Main Street.