diff --git a/torchtext/utils.py b/torchtext/utils.py
index 83ea6dad10..b3cc251e43 100644
--- a/torchtext/utils.py
+++ b/torchtext/utils.py
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import six
 import requests
 import csv
+import shutil
+import os
 from tqdm import tqdm
 
 
@@ -24,37 +26,87 @@ def inner(b=1, bsize=1, tsize=None):
     return inner
 
 
-def download_from_url(url, path):
+def download_from_url(url, destination):
     """Download file, with logic (from tensor2tensor) for Google Drive"""
-    def process_response(r):
-        chunk_size = 16 * 1024
-        total_size = int(r.headers.get('Content-length', 0))
-        with open(path, "wb") as file:
-            with tqdm(total=total_size, unit='B',
-                      unit_scale=1, desc=path.split('/')[-1]) as t:
-                for chunk in r.iter_content(chunk_size):
-                    if chunk:
-                        file.write(chunk)
-                        t.update(len(chunk))
+    def process_response(r, first_byte):
+
+        # Check if the requested url is ok, i.e. 200 <= status_code < 400
+        head = requests.head(url)
+        if not head.ok:
+            head.raise_for_status()
+
+        # Since requests doesn't support local file reading
+        # we check if protocol is file://
+        if url.startswith('file://'):
+            url_no_protocol = url.replace('file://', '', count=1)
+            if os.path.exists(url_no_protocol):
+                print('File already exists, no need to download')
+                return
+            else:
+                raise Exception('File not found at %s' % url_no_protocol)
+
+        # Don't download if the file exists
+        if os.path.exists(os.path.expanduser(destination)):
+            print('File already exists, no need to download')
+            return
+
+        tmp_file = destination + '.part'
+        first_byte = os.path.getsize(tmp_file) if os.path.exists(tmp_file) else 0
+        chunk_size = 1024 ** 2  # 1 MB
+        file_mode = 'ab' if first_byte else 'wb'
+
+        # Set headers to resume download from where we've left
+        headers = {"Range": "bytes=%s-" % first_byte}
+        r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, stream=True)
+        file_size = int(r.headers.get('Content-length', -1))
+        if file_size >= 0:
+            # Content-length set
+            file_size += first_byte
+            total = file_size
+        else:
+            # Content-length not set
+            print('Cannot retrieve Content-length from server')
+            total = None
+
+        print('Download from ' + url)
+        print('Starting download at %.1fMB' % (first_byte / (10 ** 6)))
+        print('File size is %.1fMB' % (file_size / (10 ** 6)))
+
+        with tqdm(initial=first_byte, total=total, unit_scale=True) as pbar:
+            with open(tmp_file, file_mode) as f:
+                for chunk in r.iter_content(chunk_size=chunk_size):
+                    if chunk:  # filter out keep-alive new chunks
+                        f.write(chunk)
+                        pbar.update(len(chunk))
+
+        # Rename the temp download file to the correct name if fully downloaded
+        shutil.move(tmp_file, destination)
+
+    tmp_file_path = destination + '.part'
+    first_byte = os.path.getsize(tmp_file_path) if os.path.exists(tmp_file_path) else 0
+
+    # Set headers: this will tell the server to start download from the specified byte
+    headers = {"Range": "bytes=%s-" % first_byte}
 
     if 'drive.google.com' not in url:
-        response = requests.get(url, headers={'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'}, stream=True)
-        process_response(response)
+        headers.update({'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'})
+        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, stream=True)
+        process_response(response, first_byte)
         return
 
     print('downloading from Google Drive; may take a few minutes')
     confirm_token = None
     session = requests.Session()
-    response = session.get(url, stream=True)
+    response = session.get(url, headers=headers, stream=True)
     for k, v in response.cookies.items():
         if k.startswith("download_warning"):
             confirm_token = v
 
     if confirm_token:
         url = url + "&confirm=" + confirm_token
-        response = session.get(url, stream=True)
+        response = session.get(url, headers=headers, stream=True)
 
-    process_response(response)
+    process_response(response, first_byte)
 
 
 def unicode_csv_reader(unicode_csv_data, **kwargs):