The Long Island Motor Parkway, also known as the Vanderbilt Parkway, Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, or Motor Parkway, was a roadway on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...
,
New York, in the United States. It was the first roadway designed for automobile use only.
The
parkway was privately built by
William Kissam Vanderbilt II
William Kissam Vanderbilt II (October 26, 1878 – January 8, 1944) was an American motor racing enthusiast and yachtsman, and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family.
Early life
He was born on October 26, 1878, in New York City, the seco ...
with overpasses and bridges to remove most intersections. It officially opened on October 10, 1908. It closed in 1938 when it was taken over by the state of New York in lieu of back taxes. Parts of the parkway survive today, used as sections of other roadways or as a bicycle trail.
Origins and construction
William Kissam Vanderbilt II
William Kissam Vanderbilt II (October 26, 1878 – January 8, 1944) was an American motor racing enthusiast and yachtsman, and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family.
Early life
He was born on October 26, 1878, in New York City, the seco ...
, the great-grandson of
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...
, was an auto-racing enthusiast and created the
Vanderbilt Cup, the first major road racing competition, in 1904. He ran the races on local roads in
Nassau County during the first decade of the 20th century, but the deaths of two spectators and injury to many others showed the need to eliminate racing on residential streets. Vanderbilt responded by establishing a company to build a graded, banked and grade-separated highway suitable for racing that was also free of the horse manure dust often churned up by motor cars. The resulting Long Island Motor Parkway, with its banked turns, guard rails, reinforced concrete roadbed, and controlled access, was the first
limited-access roadway in the world.
The road was originally planned to stretch for in and out of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
as far as
Riverhead, the county seat of
Suffolk County, and point of division for the
north
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
and
south forks of
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...
. Only (from
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
in New York City to
Lake Ronkonkoma
Lake Ronkonkoma is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 20,155 at the 2010 census.
Lake Ronkonkoma is mainly located in the Town of Brookhaven, but has s ...
) were constructed, at a cost of $6 million.
Construction began in June 1908 (a year after the
Bronx River Parkway
The Bronx River Parkway (sometimes abbreviated as the Bronx Parkway) is a long parkway in downstate New York in the United States. It is named for the nearby Bronx River, which it parallels. The southern terminus of the parkway is at Story Aven ...
). On October 10, 1908, a section opened as far as modern Bethpage. It hosted races in 1908 and on the full road in 1909 and 1910, but an accident in the latter year's
Vanderbilt Cup, killing two
riding mechanic
A riding mechanic was a mechanic that rode along with a race car during races, and who was tasked with maintaining, monitoring, and repairing the car during the race. The various duties included manually pumping oil and fuel, checking tire wear, ...
s with additional injuries, caused the
New York Legislature to ban racing except on race tracks, ending its career as a racing road.
By 1911, the road was extended to Lake Ronkonkoma. Its western stretch was also extended from Great Neck to what is now
Fresh Meadows. The Long Island Motor Parkway was the first roadway designed exclusively for automobile use, the first concrete highway in the United States, and the first to use overpasses and bridges to eliminate intersections.
AAA Champ Car Venue
The parkway was used for four
American Automobile Association Contest Board Champ Car
Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ...
races.
The first one was held on October 30,
1909 and it was won by
Harry Grant.
Three races were held on October 10,
1910 in front of a crowd estimated at 300,000 people.
Grant won the main 22-lap event.
A 15-lap event was won by
Frank Gelnaw and
Bill Endicott
"Farmer" Bill Endicott (November 5, 1876 – June 7, 1944) was an American racecar driver. He raced in three Indianapolis 500 races in the 1910s. Endicott raced on several IMCA circuits in the United States and Canada in the 1910s and 1920s ...
won a 10-lap event.
Reference:
Access
The Long Island Motor Parkway was a
toll road
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implement ...
, with access at a small number of toll booths, joined to local roads by short connector roads. Traffic could turn left between the parkway and connectors, crossing oncoming traffic, so it was not a
controlled-access highway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...
(or "freeway" as later defined by the federal government's
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices). Access points were:
*Nassau Boulevard (
NY 25D) west of
Francis Lewis Boulevard. The right-of-way of Nassau Boulevard was later used for the
Long Island Expressway
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music me ...
(
I-495).
*Hillside Avenue (
NY 25B) –
Springfield Boulevard south of 77th Avenue
*
Great Neck
Great Neck is a region on Long Island, New York, that covers a peninsula on the North Shore and includes nine villages, among them Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, Kings Point, and Russell Gardens, and a number of unincorp ...
– Lakeville Road south of Lake Road
*
Roslyn – Roslyn Road south of Barnyard Lane
*
Mineola –
Jericho Turnpike
Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Go ...
(
NY 25) at Rudolph Drive
*
Garden City – Clinton Road at Vanderbilt Court
*Meadowbrook – Merrick Avenue north of Stewart Avenue
*
Bethpage – Hicksville Road (
NY 107) south of Avoca Avenue; Round Swamp Road south of Old Bethpage Road
*
Melville – Broad Hollow Road north of Spagnoli Road
*
Deer Park – Deer Park Road (
NY 231)
*
East Commack – Commack Spur along Harned Road (
CR 14) to Jericho Turnpike (NY 25)
*
Brentwood – Washington Avenue
*
Ronkonkoma – Rosevale Avenue
When the parkway opened, the toll was set at $2. It was reduced to $1.50 in 1912, $1 in 1917, and 40 cents in 1938. The first six toll houses were designed by architect
John Russell Pope, designer of the
Jefferson Memorial and the rotunda in the
American Museum of Natural History.
The toll houses were designed to include living space for the toll collectors so that toll could be collected at all hours. The most prominent remaining toll house is in
Garden City. Once located at the junction of Clinton Road and Vanderbilt Court, it was moved in 1989 to 230 Seventh Street, now the headquarters of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce.
Demise
Roadway design advances of the 1920s rendered the road obsolete less than 20 years after construction. At the same time
Robert Moses
Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid 20th century. Despite never being elected to any office, Moses is regarded ...
was planning the
Northern State Parkway.
In 1929, the owners and some Long Island officials proposed that New York State should buy the road and integrate it into the state parkway system, despite its narrow roadway (varying from 22 to as little as 16 feet wide) and steep bridges not meeting new standards. Moses opposed the idea, stating that the Long Island Motor Parkway had been "a white elephant for the last twenty years" and that it would need significant reconstruction to integrate it into the state parkway system.
["Derides Plan to Buy L.I. Motor Parkway: Moses Calls Idea 'Propaganda for Nassau Millionaire Estate Owners']". ''The New York Times''. July 31, 1929. p. 23.]
The completion of the
Northern State Parkway signaled the end for the road. In 1937, the portion of the Long Island Motor Parkway in
Suffolk County was donated to Suffolk County. In July 1938, the remainder of the parkway's land was given to Nassau County and the Long Island State Parks Commission.
Remaining portions
Most of the road in Queens is a bicycle trail from
Cunningham Park to
Alley Pond Park, part of the
Brooklyn–Queens Greenway
The Brooklyn–Queens Greenway is a bicycling and pedestrian path connecting parks and roads in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, connecting Coney Island in the south to Fort Totten in the north, on Long Island Sound. The rout ...
. It starts at
Francis Lewis Boulevard in Cunningham Park. The path runs south, parallel with 199th Street, and crosses a bridge over 73rd Avenue. It turns east toward Francis Lewis Boulevard, crossing it on a bridge. It continues through the park, crossing under the
Clearview Expressway Clearview or clear view may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Clearview'' (album), the seventh studio album by the Finnish rock band Poets of the Fall
Companies
* Clearview AI, a facial recognition company
* Clearview Cinemas, a chain of movie thea ...
through a tunnel, and then over Hollis Hills Terrace on a third bridge before leaving the park. There is access to 209th and 210th Streets in
Hollis Hills. It goes through a wooded corridor, soon crossing over Bell Boulevard on a bridge, and provides access to 220th Street just east of Bell Boulevard. After crossing Springfield Boulevard on another bridge, there is access to Cloverdale Boulevard where the main line of the greenway goes north. The road continues as a spur route that enters Alley Pond Park, crosses under the
Grand Central Parkway, and provides access to Union Turnpike before ending at Union Turnpike and Winchester Boulevard at the park's eastern boundary.
The Nassau County roadway has been redeveloped, or turned into a
right of way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
for
Long Island Power Authority
Long Island Power Authority (LIPA, "lie-pah") is a municipal subdivision of the State of New York that owns the electric transmission and electric distribution system serving all of Long Island and a portion of New York City known as the Rocka ...
transmission lines. A small section of the roadway remains in
Lake Success in Great Neck, though unmarked and not open to the public. Most of this section is currently within the property of
Great Neck South High School
William A. Shine Great Neck South High School (commonly Great Neck South, South High School, or GNSHS) is a four-year public high school located in the Lake Success village of Great Neck, New York. The school serves students in grades 9 throug ...
. The adjacent former Great Neck toll house was incorporated into the building of a private house.
Another section may be seen on either side of Willis Avenue on the boundary between
Albertson and
Wiliston Park. On the east side of the avenue, several hundred yards of road provide access to the Williston Park pool property abutting the LIRR.
The road survives as a continuous county road, Vanderbilt Motor Parkway (CR 67), from Half Hollow Road in Dix Hills to its original end in Ronkonkoma, just a few blocks short of the lake. Signage along the way also identifies it variously as Vanderbilt Parkway and Motor Parkway. From Half Hollow Road, it goes northeast to NY 231 (Deer Park Avenue). It starts to parallel the Northern State Parkway and intersects with
CR 4 (Commack Road) in
Commack. It crosses the
Sagtikos State Parkway (with northbound access northbound) and heads south to I-495 (the Long Island Expressway). The parkway heads eastward, paralleling the expressway (with access to and from the LIE) before ultimately crossing it and continuing southeast to
NY 111 (Joshua's Path). It then heads north, crossing the LIE again at exit 57, and then curves to the east and crosses
NY 454 (Veterans Memorial Highway). It heads east across Old Nichols and Terry roads ahead of one final northeastward turn to end at Rosevale Avenue (
CR 93) in Ronkonkoma, close to the lake.
Though not a limited access road since 1938, most of the road was recognizable into the 1970s, while new intersections continued to be cut through it. In the approximate middle of the road in and around
Islandia, office construction and other commercial building has widened the road and made it appear a typical highway.
In 2008 the road celebrated its 100th anniversary. On October 30, 2011, a centennial event marked the 100th anniversary of the completion of the Lake Ronkonkoma section. Led by the winner of the 1909 and 1910 Vanderbilt Cup races, a parade of automobiles made prior to 1948 went from Dix Hills to Lake Ronkonkoma.
See also
*
List of county routes in Suffolk County, New York
References
External links
Long Island Motor Parkway(VanderbiltCupRaces.com)
Long Island Vanderbilt Parkway(NYCROADS.com)
Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society(VanderbiltCupRaces.com)
(Arrt's Arrchives)
LIMP(wikimapia.org map showing route and remnants of the parkway)
{{Authority control
Bike paths in New York (state)
Demolished highways in the United States
Roads on Long Island
Parks in Queens, New York
Parkways in New York City
Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Transportation in Nassau County, New York
Transportation in Queens, New York
Vanderbilt Cup
Former toll roads in New York (state)
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
National Register of Historic Places in Queens, New York
National Register of Historic Places in Nassau County, New York
Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)