In 1938, after the destruction to Fire Island from the Long Island Express hurricane,

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. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influentia ...

and W. Earle Andrews, both part of the

Long Island State Park Commission The Long Island State Park Commission, also known as LISPC, is a government agency on Long Island, in the state of New York, headquartered at Belmont Lake State Park in North Babylon. Originally a standalone agency, it is now a regional subdivi ...

, proposed reconstruction of the island. This proposal included an extension of the Ocean Parkway out from its terminus at Captree State Park across Fire Island to Westhampton. This new parkway, which would boast wide roadways, would have connections back to the mainland at Smith Point County Park and Ponquogue with parkway spurs across Shinnecock Bay and the

Great South Bay The Great South Bay is a lagoon situated between Long Island and Fire Island, in the State of New York. It is about long and has an average depth of and is at its deepest. It is protected from the Atlantic Ocean by Fire Island, a barrier island ...

. The new spur at Ponquogue, deemed the Ponquogue Parkway, would have marked the eastern terminus of the new Ocean Parkway extension. The proposal lived until the cut-back to Smith Point County Park in 1962 for environmental issues with such a construction, ending any proposal for a parkway in the area of Hampton Bays.

History

After the destruction caused to

Fire Island Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy once again divided Fire Island into two islands. Together, these two isl ...

because of the 1938 Long Island Express hurricane,

, director of the

(LISPC) proposed reconstruction of Fire Island to restrain future damage from other natural disasters. The $9.3 million proposal, designed by Moses and W. Earle Andrews, would bring of sand to bolster Fire Island. This sand would create a complete fill from Fire Island Inlet to the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

station at Shinnecock. These new fills would be approximately wide and would also go to working on Moriches Inlet and

Shinnecock Inlet Shinnecock Inlet is the easternmost of five major inlets connecting bays to the Atlantic Ocean through the narrow Outer Barrier that stretches from New York City to Southampton, New York on the south shore of Long Island. It splits Westhampton Isl ...

. Sand would also be dredged from the Great South Bay,

Moriches Bay Moriches Bay ( ) is a lagoon system on the south shore of Long Island, New York (state), New York. The name Moriches comes from Meritces, a Native American who owned land on Moriches Neck. Two townships in Suffolk NY, Suffolk, New York (Brookhaven ...

and Shinnecock Bay to boost the effort of shoring Fire Island. To control erosion on Fire Island, Moses and Andrews proposed a brand new wide two-lane parkway over the fill. The wide concrete lanes and the turf shoulders would help prevent the

beach erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landward r ...

along the island. In the need for these new parkways, Moses and Andrews also proposed two parkway spurs across the Great South Bay and Shinnecock Bay. These parkway spurs, which would use bascule lift bridges, were to connect to the William Floyd Parkway (current-day CR 46) and Ponquogue Avenue (current-day CR 32), which would cross their respective bodies of water and terminate at a junction with

Montauk Highway Montauk Highway is an east–west road extending for across the southern shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. It extends from the Amityville, New York, Amityville–Copiague, New York, Copiague line, where ...

( NY 27A) in Shirley and Hampton Bays. Deemed locally as the Ponquogue Parkway, but also considered an extension of the Ocean Parkway, the new parkway proposal would also bring forth three new parks into the

New York State Parks This is a list of state parks in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Also listed are state golf courses, seasonal hunting areas, and ''former'' state parks. In New York, state parks are managed by the New York State Office of Parks, R ...

system: Smith Point (replacing the current-day Smith Point County Park), Point O'Woods (in the namesake community) and Quogue. Fire Island State Park would also be rebuilt. Within that year, Andrews sliced over $6 million off of the project, eliminating a bridge over Fire Island Inlet along with the state parks at Quogue and Point O'Woods. The other 1938 change would be a new turnoff in Hampton Bays rather than construction out to Southampton and NY 27A. This money would be paid for by Suffolk Count and by a grant from the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...

. This proposal was opposed to by locals due to its costs in 1938, but raised again in 1944 by Moses due to the belief that no storms would ever hit the area again. In 1962, Moses brought, with support of a 15-member commission that approved a $137 million (1962 USD) shoreline plan from

Tottenville, Staten Island Tottenville is a neighborhood on the South Shore, Staten Island, South Shore of Staten Island, New York City. It is the southernmost neighborhood and settlement in both New York City and New York (state), New York State, as well as the westernm ...

to Montauk, a truncated proposal that would extend the Ocean Parkway across most of Fire Island to a junction in Smith Point County Park rather than all the way out to Shinnecock. Residents of Fire Island argued that the time it would take to construct the new parkway would take too long and should invest in a temporary solution for protection of the island. At that time, the group funding the project stated that all it would need to construct this new parkway was approval of the

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the Bicameralism, two houses that act as the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York: the New York State Senate and the New York State Assem ...

. Suffolk County and the state also intended to withhold funds from any project that did not have the parkway extension.

Exit list for proposed parkway

References

External links

Unbuilt Ponquogue Causeway @ NYCROADS.com

Ocean Parkway @ NYCROADS.com
{{State parkways on Long Island Roads on Long Island Transportation in Suffolk County, New York Cancelled highway projects in the United States Robert Moses projects Parkways in New York (state) Southampton (town), New York