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New York, Providence and Boston Railroad

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad subsidiary

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ16982707 ↗
Source-derived summary

The New York, Providence and Boston Railroad, normally called the Stonington Line (for its western terminus), was a railroad company that connected Providence, Rhode Island, and Stonington, Connecticut. Originally intended to connect Providence to New York City via steamboats calling at Stonington, it was chartered in 1832 and began operations in 1837. The company was leased by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1893. It is now part of Amtrak's high-speed Northeast Corridor.

History

Prior to the building of the NYP&B, travelers between New York City and Boston had to pass around Point Judith, Rhode Island and its rough waters to reach the Boston and Providence Railroad in Providence. The B&P was completed in 1835 and began operating the steamer Lexington between Providence and New York, adding the Massachusetts in 1836.

The New York and Stonington Railroad was chartered in Connecticut in May 1832 and the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad in Rhode Island in June of that year to fix the problem. On July 1, 1833 they consolidated to form a new New York, Providence and Boston Railroad. Ground was broken by the subsidiary Providence and Stonington Railroad at Stonington, Connecticut on August 14, 1833. On November 17, 1837 the line opened between Stonington and a pier at South Providence, about 1 mile downriver from the city center.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “New York, Providence and Boston Railroad” as new York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad subsidiary. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1832, 1837, 1893, 1835—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1832-01-01. The account is most persuasive where York, Providence and Boston can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as new York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad subsidiary. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16982707. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1832, 1837, 1893 and 1835.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “New York, Providence and Boston Railroad” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.