sentences:  This was the second railroad to be built in New York State, following the Mohawk and Hudson, the Albany-to-Schenectady road, which began 17 April 1827.This railroad was named after Tonawanda Creek, which flows through Batavia.Historian Edward Dunn questions the derivation of the naming, as the eleven miles of line constructed up the valley of the Tonawanda Creek to Attica was an afterthought.