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DUTCHESS COUNTY RAILROAD

     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: