The Auburn and Rochester Railroad was a railroad company based in New York state in the 19th century. Introduction The Auburn and Rochester Railroad Company was built to bring Canandaigua access to regional and national markets and sources. Extending southeast from Rochester to Geneva and Canandaigua with a trackage length of 78½ miles, its right-of-way exceeded that of the contemporaneous and nearby Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Company. The road was chartered on 13 May 1836. The Panic of 1837 slowed construction, and the Genesee River had to be bridged. The line reached Geneva in September 1840, Canandaigua in November 1841. Initially, some ninety percent of the line's business was the haulage of passengers, and local merchants had to persuade the company, in 1841, to schedule one freight run a week. History, 1836 to 1850 If this railroad company started life unusually, it was in having its state charter specifically lay out its route. Normally, the charter granted by the legislature stipulates the termini, leaving the precise routing to the company, its directors, management, and engineers. When the New York Legislature established the Auburn and Rochester Railroad Company under Chapter 349 of the corporate law, "...the act provided that it should be constructed between the village of Auburn and the city of Rochester, 'commencing in the village of Auburn at the termination of the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad and running thence through the village of Seneca Falls and the town of Waterloo; the village of Geneva and the village of Vienna and the town of Manchester; the village of Canandaigua and thence through the town of Victor by the most eligible route to the city of Rochester where it may terminate at and connect with the Tonawanda Railroad.'" Henry Bicker Gibson, a wealthy Canandaigua banker, provided the impetus and the direction, serving as a founder, an investor, and the president of the corporation. When the thirteen directors were elected in March, 1837, there were five hundred and forty-one subscribers to the company's stock. They represented not only Canandaigua, the center of interest in this railroad, but the intervening communities as well, reflecting the deep commercial interest that they had in a railroad connection to the rest of the country. Pivotal in making this undertaking happen was the state legislature's guarantee of the bonds with which it was financed. At the time, canals occupied a position of privilege in New York, with