The Long Island Motor Parkway, also known as the Vanderbilt Motor
Parkway, survives today as a bicycle path, but began as America’s first
limited-access road for cars.
Originally started in 1908 by the railroad mogul and financier,
William K. Vanderbilt Jr. (1878-1944), the parkway was the prototype for
today’s superhighways. It was the first long-distance, concrete
highway, utilizing bridges and overpasses to eliminate cross traffic,
super-elevated curves for safety and speed, and was the first high-speed
route from Queens to Suffolk County. The parkway’s history is filled
with extraordinary racing cars, bootleggers, public controversy and
historic preservation efforts.
