When it comes to compromising, I am willing to meet anyone halfway. But where is halfway?
The City Hall in Norwich is a renovated railroad station, originally erected by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) back in 1902. On the west side of the station is a sign which proclaims “<== Utica 51 Miles CITY OF NORWICH Binghamton 42 Miles ==>”. There it is in one of the photos. The date is from John Taibi’s 2005 book, “Remembering the New York, Ontario & Western Railway, Oswego to Sidney & Branches,” page 266.
Assuming that those distances are correct, the halfway point between Utica and Binghamton would be 4.5 miles north of the station. Railroads have mile posts along their tracks. One is located about a furlong north of the Norwich Station, between Mechanic and Mitchell streets. It states “233,” because it is 233 miles from Hoboken, New Jersey, the eastern terminal of the DL&W. Mile post 232 is a mile south between Prentice Street and the Black Bridge.
Mile post 237 is just north of the western member of the “Two Bridges” over the Chenango River in the Town of North Norwich. The other member of this famous duo was an O&W bridge, #300 (Taibi, page 228), which was removed after the O&W ceased operation in 1957. Fortunately, the abutments remain. The Two Bridges are famous because of the great fishing the river provides here, or used to.
When I paced off 3 furlongs from post 237, the nearest easily recognizable landmark is the road between State Route 12 and OSG Norwich Pharmaceutical. The other photo shows it crossing the tracks north of about where the halfway point between Utica and Binghamton is actually located. The crossing gates are visible. The OSG road is a half-mile south of where Route 12 crosses the tracks. Mile post 238 is north of that crossing.
The actual halfway point between any two geographical locations depends on how the measurements were made. Railroad distances are between stations. Canal distances are probably between stations as well as locks. Highway distances are usually between municipal boundaries. The Chenango Canal was 97 miles between Binghamton and Utica, as per Michele McFee’s 1993 book, “Limestone Locks and Overgrowth. The Rise and Descent of the Chenango Canal,” page 60. That would place the halfway point 48.5 miles from each city. It seems that the distance was measured from the Susquehanna River to the Erie Canal. Nevertheless, from what I can work out, the halfway point would be about in the same place as the one for the DL&W.
Canal lock 92 was in Plasterville. The scant remains of lock 91 are northward, near Route 12. It is the lock closest to the DL&W halfway point. Lock 90 was south of the Fly Creek culvert, also near Route 12. Lock 89 was north of the hamlet of North Norwich. The OSG road runs over the old canal bed. Lock locations were obtained from the 1995 “Reconnaissance Survey” by Cynthia A. Carrington and others, pages 39-58.
State Route 12 runs between Binghamton and Utica. Actually, Route 12 runs into Route 11, about 3 miles north of the city limits of Binghamton in the Town of Chenango. Bradford B. Van Diver, in his 1985 book, “Roadside Geology of New York,” gives the distance between Binghamton and Utica on Route 12 as 85 miles (page 149). That too, would place the halfway point roughly in the same location as the railroad and the canal. The AAA (American Automobile Association) 1997 “Tour Book New York” gives 39 miles between Binghamton and Norwich, 49 miles between Norwich and Utica (page A236). According to these figures, the halfway point would be 5 miles north of Norwich on Route 12, between where it crosses the railroad tracks and the hamlet.
This canal + railroad + highway halfway point should be accurately measured and somehow memorialized. A fitting monument might be a section of canal ditch in which rusty railroad tracks protrude, lavishly decorated with random splotches of concrete and asphalt.