Last week, this column described a railroad line that once connected Bridgehampton to Sag Harbor. Part of what I left out was an explanation of why the road that now is the most direct route between the two is to this day called a turnpike.
Today we think of roadways as public amenities, but in America’s booming early years, private investors provided much of the developing nation’s infrastructure -- to varying degrees of success.
The Sagg-Harbor and Bull’s Head Turnpike Company was created by state authorization in 1833. Samuel L’Hommedieu Jr., William Rysam Sleight, and Abraham Topping Rose put up the money to improve an age-old cart path. The full capitalization was $6,000 at $20 per share, a lot of money at the time. The new road they were to lay out would be no more than 18 feet wide.
The route began in present-day Bridgehampton and ended at the Otter Pond bridge on the Sag Harbor side. The men had a toll house built near where the Sag Harbor recycling center is today. The gate went down for the first time in about 1840, with rates of 8 cents per two-horse wagon or cart, 12 cents per stagecoach, 4 cents for a sled, and 3 cents for a horse and rider. A score of cattle or mules could pass for 10 cents, the same number of sheep or hogs, 4 cents.
Once the railroad line to Sag Harbor went into use in 1870, traffic on the turnpike dropped off. Eventually, it no longer paid for the company to maintain it, and the road was allowed to fall into very bad condition. The state took it over in 1905 for a nominal fee and the gate was thrown open for good. The toll house itself burned to the ground a few years later.