 Bonding for the rail line through New Paltz, at a cost of $123,000, was completed by January 1869.The Wallkill Valley Railroad was the first rail line in Ulster County, and was heralded as a cure for the region's isolation from the rest of the industrialized world.By November 1869, the Gardiner rail depot, to the south of New Paltz, was ceremoniously opened by the railroad's president, Floyd McKinstry.