"Gandy Dancers" / I Construttori della Ferrovia

, “Gandy Dancers” , Railroad maintenance was a constant necessity. Skilled workers and day laborers were hired to grade the land, build trestles, lay and realign the tracks, and keep things in good repair. Nicknamed "gandy dancers," they were often Irish immigrants like Richard Stanton, who held the important post of road-master and is shown here supervising his crew around 1900. Although the tracks are gone, the railbed and some rail-side buildings remain. The Howard Haight and Co. building (1890) was used to store and sell flour, feed, grain, hay, and straw. Later, coal arrived by rail from east- ern Pennsylvania. Long gone, the tall elevator tower stored goods transferred from the box cars below. The railroad stopped running in the 1930s, and the Haight Building subsequently housed Merritt Books. , ,