Michael Abbey
    Steve Anderson
    S. Berliner, III

(04 Jun 02 map, with more accurate dating 20 Dec 2005;
by and © 2002, 2005 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)

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(Courtesy of Northport Public Library)
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]

William K. Vanderbilt, Jr.

Construction of the Parkway was started on 06 June 1908 and it was opened virtually its full length by 1911; a 2½-mile western extension was built in 1928.   The Long Island Motor Parkway closed on Easter Sunday, 16 April 1938, a victim of Robert Moses' adjacent toll-free Northern State Parkway and the continuing depression.

There was a consensus among panel members that the old Motor Parkway bridge on the grounds of the Old Bethpage Village Restoration immediately west of the Nassau/Suffolk border should be cleaned up, placarded, and made accessible to OBVR visitors.

The Panel had formally objected to a plan to demolish the Old Courthouse Road bridge in North Hills/Manhasset Hills; this bridge is one of the only two surviving Parkway bridges in Nassau County and the only surviving one where the Parkway went UNDER a public road.

Other projects placed before the panel for consideration included:

Creation of a complete route map, based on a popular map series, which can be put up (in sections) on one of our Web pages.

Preservation of the Duryea Road bridge site in Melville in western Suffolk County, just east of Route 110 and north of Republic Airport.

Creation of a complete plot plan, based on property maps from LIMP, LILCO/LIPA, the NYC Dept. of Parks, and Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties, etc.

Determining and monumenting the exact original western terminus near Hillside Avenue and Bell Boulevard and the later 1928 terminus at Rocky Hill Road near Peck Avenue and 199th Street in the Kissena Corridor area.

Monumenting the eastern terminus at Rosevale Avenue on the western shore of Lake Ronkonkoma, the site of the Petit Trianon Inn (and the nearby LIMP dormitory, later a nursing home now, malheureusement, demolished).

In addition, the Panel was to have looked into preservation of the extant original segment running east from Clinton Street along the southwestern boundary of the Roosevelt Field mall, just north of Stewart Avenue, in Garden City, and possible publication (perhaps limited) of the above-noted maps.

Panelists (and others) were and are requested to please be on the lookout for a missing historical pamphlet about the LIMP described in the LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Maintaining a list of LIMP-related road and place name equivalencies (and pitfalls).

We were open to suggestions from the public; contact the Preservation Society instead.

An April 2000 Motor Parkway display at the Northport Public Library included an undated clipping from NEWSDAY which had to postdate the referenced article, "History Takes the High Road" [April 5] (1998; Page Number: A08; Section: News - Sylvia Adcock); it is a letter from Mrs. Joanne Sica's Fourth Grade class at the Raymond J. Lockhart school in Massapequa and it sets forth the case for conservation, preservation, and restoration of the remaining parts of the Long Island Motor Parkway far more eloquently than we could ever hope to do:

    "We believe the Long island Motor Parkway should be preserved.  It is an important part of our Long Island history because it was the first motor parkway in the nation to use reinforced concrete, landscaping, banked turns for high-speed driving, safety guard rails, special highway police and a non-skid surface.

    Perhaps the restored bridge and highway could be used for field trips; have old-fashioned cars drive on it and open it to the public.  It can also be used as a bikeway and walkway.  Maybe the Long Island Marathon could take place there.  A sign could be put up to tell visitors about the history of the parkway."

How far-sighted these children were; how much wisdom out of the mouths of babes.  We would do well to listen, before we squander any more of our rich automotive heritage.

The article was accompanied by a photograph of the Old Bethpage Village Restoration bridge, taken back when it was still clearly visible and not yet clogged with debris; compare that visual image with the current pictures on the Convenor's LIMP page 2.

Motor Parkway Panel member Tom Walsh contributed an article on the LIMP for Larry Graff's "your About.com Guide to: Long Island, NY".

Motor Parkway Panel member Steve Anderson was quoted in a NEWSDAY article by Sidney C. Shaer, "Highway Hopes That Faded", on page A20 (Nassau edition) of the Friday, 05 Nov 99, issue, in the "Long Island - Our Future" series, "Predictions from the past that haven't come true ... yet".

Motor Parkway Panel convenor Sam Berliner contributed the cover story on the LIMP (especially as it traversed the narrow central portion of the Town of Oyster Bay - through Central Park/Bethpage) for the Winter 2000 issue FREEHOLDER, "The History Magazine of the Town of Oyster Bay", the publication of the Oyster Bay Historical Society, of which he is a member.

Let us motor off to the very far end of the Parkway and "do" lunch at le restaurant Petit Trianon; c'est tres joli, ça!  In case you are not sure you wish to patronise Willie's little place on the western shore of Lake Ronkonkoma, here, courtesy of Motor Parkway Panel member Tom Walsh, is an original advertisement:

(Courtesy of Thomas V. Walsh, Esq., Mar 00)
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for VERY large image.]
{from the host's main LIMP page.}

45 miles at 40MPH with "no police traps, no dust"!

[Other material listed "No Speed Limit.  No Grade Crossings.  No Dust.  No Police Traps."]

The Petit Trianon establishment was variously termed "Inn" and "Restaurant"
(more often the former, unlike the example presented here)
in different official LIMP publications
{ya pays yer money and ya takes yer cherce).

Well, here's a kicker!  Panelist Ron Ridolph sent me a xerographic copy of the Petit Trianon letterhead:

It shows only the name itself, with no "Inn" or "Restaurant", "under management Arthur H. Myers" and the telephone number was 30 RONKONKOMA.

# - DONATIONS

Panelist's Pages:

Michael Abbey's Vanderbilt Parkway page, with photos and links and a somewhat-blurry 1925 map.

Steve Anderson's Long Island (Vanderbilt) Motor Parkway page, with photos and links, on his NYC Area Roads, Crossings, and Exits site, where you will also find a rough map and more quotations from NEWSDAY's Sylvia Adcock and info on, and links to, Web Rings (not my thing) for East Coast Roads, Interstate Highways, New York City, and Long Island.

Vince Fitzgerald's Motor Parkway page, on his Hempstead Plains Long Island historical site.

Jeff Saltzman's Streetlight Site's Photo Gallery's Park Scenes area with "Vanderbilt" Motor Parkway in Queens, with "The present western terminus between 67th & 64th Aves", "Two views midway between 69th & 67th Aves", "Two views at 199th St & 69th Ave.", and "Dead end at Clearview Expwy."

In addition, Motor Parkway panelists, Sue and Rob Friedman, have a site about the Bronx's old " Freedomland".

Kevin Walsh's outstanding Forgotten NY site blossomed, on its "Street Scenes" section, with a Motor Parkway page (unbeknownst to me - sorry Kevin); he focuses on the Queens segment.

Panel Associate Denis Byrne has a Parkway page at http://www.geocities.com/denisbyrne/motorpk.html.

Panel Member Art Huneke's ARRt'sARRchives includes a LIMP page.

Panel Associate Dr. Mark DeSantis has a page primarily on the Vanderbilt Cup races.

Perhaps the most significant new addition to the Panel armamentarium is Panel Member Howard Kroplick's fantastic Vanderbilt Cup Race site, with it's blog, with it's special section on the LIMP.  Not only has Howard been an ardent and active supporter of the Panel and a champion of the LIMP, he even owns (and drives) the actual Bête Noir, the 1908 ALCo (American Locomotive Company) racer that won the 1908 and 1909 Vanderbilt Cup Races!   (12 Dec 2010)

Your HOST'S LI MOTOR PARKWAY PAGE INDEX:

  The index on this page has been truncated to save page space; see the LIMP Index on the page preceding the host's main LIMP page, which now includes a Geographical Index. .

    On the main LIMP page:

    On Continuation Page 0:

    On Continuation Page 1A:

    On Continuation Page 2:

    On Continuation Page 3:

    On Continuation Page 4:

    On Continuation Page 5:

On Continuation Page 6:

On Continuation Page 7:

On Continuation Page 8:

Continuation Page 9:

Continuation Page 10:

On Continuation Page 11:

On the Queens Page:

On Queens Continuation Page 1:

On the Suffolk Page:

On the LIMP Tour Page:

You could start by visiting
^{the or the}
of the Hosts's series of Long Island Motor Parkway pages.

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Also, if you like automotive history, see the links on the host's Automotive page.

Then there are the host's general Long Island and History pages.

Other sites of general interest include:

National Parks Service -

    Historic American Engineering Record.

    National Historic Landmarks Program.

    National Register of Historic Places.

Society for Industrial Archeology
    (The SIA's Roebling Chapter in NYC does not seem to have a Web presence)

American Heritage of Invention & Technology
    (a great magazine of which I am a charter subscriber)

Association for Industrial Archaeology (UK)

Industrial Heritage (UK Magazine)

Industriekultur - Museum Virtuell, USA page
    (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Industriekultur e.V. in Zusammenarbeit mit dem
     Geographischen Institut der Universität zu Köln)

Industrial Archaeology and Industrial History web ring.

Panel Events will no longer be posted here (such as):

^{LECTURES AND SLIDE SHOWS
TO COMMEMORATE
THE 100th ANIVERSARY OF THE
VANDERBILT CUP RACE}

The Northport Public Library presented Bob Miller on Friday, 24 Mar 00.

The Queens Borough Public Library presented Bob Miller on Saturday, 18 Mar 00.

Mr. Miller varies his programs so that there is always something new to discover.

Events of general interest to LIMP afficionadoes are/will be posted on Howard Kroplick's LIMP pages on his Vanderbilt Cup Races site.

See you at the next event ("can never get enough of that wonderful stuff!"),