Long Island Motor Parkway

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Remembering the Vanderbilt Parkway
Vanderbilt Parkway Bridge over 73rd Street
Long Island Motor Parkway (marked in purple)

The Long Island Motor Parkway (LIMP), also known as Vanderbilt Parkway , was a private road connection established in New York State from 1908, which was reserved as a toll road for automobile traffic and also served as a race track. Its crossing-free design makes it a forerunner of the highways . It was taken over by New York State in 1938 and closed down.

The original financier of the route was William Kissam Vanderbilt II , the great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt , an enthusiastic organizer of car races . After some serious accidents, Vanderbilt decided to build a road suitable only for car traffic and his Vanderbilt Cup, which was founded in 1904 , and formed a company to do so. The Long Island Motor Parkway, with its concrete pavement, bridges and underpasses, guardrails and its 14 toll stations, took on a global pioneering role.

The toll route should initially be 70  mi (113  km ) from New York City to Riverhead . In the end, only 45  mi (72  km ) were built (from Queens in New York City to Lake Ronkonkoma ). Construction began in June 1908 and a first section was opened in October 1908. From 1911 the road led to Lake Ronkonkoma.

In the late 1920s, the parkway was considered obsolete due to its relatively narrow lanes and steep bridges. Robert Moses , the New York City and Transportation Planner, pushed through its takeover and closure in 1938. Parts of the Parkway in Queens still exist as a bike path from Cunningham Park to Alley Pond Park.

Automobile races for the Vanderbilt Cup took place in 1908 , 1909 and 1910 , but another serious accident with four dead spectators led to road races being banned in New York State as early as 1910.

Six of the toll booths were designed by the well-known architect John Russell Pope .

literature

  • Howard Kroplick, Al Velocchi: The Long Island Motor Parkway (= Images of America. ). Acadia Publishing, Charleston SC 2008, ISBN 0-7385-5793-5 , p. 7.

Web links

Commons : Long Island Motor Parkway  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files