Last night, alert “06880” reader/EMS deputy director Marc Hartog was working another job: traffic agent.
He assisted a construction crew installing water service to a building at the corner of Route 1 and Riverside Avenue.
Digging for the main, they uncovered old trolley tracks in the middle of Post Road West.
Treating them like dinosaur relics, the crew worked around the tracks, rather than removing them.
When the service is connected to the main, they’ll back fill and cover them with asphalt.
Once again, an important bit of Westport history will lie forgotten and undisturbed — until another 21st-century project digs deep, again.
(NOTE: In the 19th and early 20th centuries, trolleys rolled up and down the Post Road, connecting towns and cities all along the coast. A spur took riders to Compo Beach. Tracks remained through the 1950s, though service had been discontinued.)