1958-1967 tours of the Long Island Motor Parkway #1: Queens
.From 1958 to 1967, an unidentified couple documented their tour of the Motor Parkway with over 70 photos taken from the Western Terminus in Queens to the Eastern Terminus (Lake Ronkonkoma). In the first of a new series, these ten photos feature our favorite parkway in Queens taken around 1958.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Western Terminus
View looking south
View looking north
73rd Avenue Motor Parkway Bridge
View looking northeast towards Francis Lewis Boulevard.
Hollis Court Boulevard Motor Parkway Bridge
Springfield Boulevard Motor Parkway Bridge
Southern entrance ramp from Springfield Boulevard
The exact location of the Rocky Hill Lodge (see below), view looking east.
Grand Central Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
View looking east. Note the wooden guardrails on the left.
Comments
I was 10 years old in 1958 and rode my bike on the Vanderbilt Pkwy more times than I can remember. The LIE was under construction through Fresh Meadows at the time. and the Clearview Xway was not yet being constructed south of its interchange w/the LIE. As can be noticed in the photos, nothing was done to keep the right of way clear. Rather, it merely was a remnant of a world gone by. All I knew at the time from word of mouth that it was an abandoned roadway. Notice, also, that the Grand Central Pkway was the original parkway; reconstruction of this section did not start until 1971, from what I remember. And notice, too, the cars. Although they were death traps, weren’t they beautiful?
Very interesting, looking forward to this. Believe this is the same lady seen in the LIMP Bridge Series, Lakeville Rd.
Could be Brian! She’s very similar to that girl by Lakeville Rd. This could very well be the lost collection associated to that photo.
Really great photos I ride my bicycle on this rode almost daily
As a 9 year old this was MY motor parkway! Endless bike rides. Navy gating the underpass in Alley Pond Park. Ever so curious about the Hobo camp just east of Francis Lewis, hidden in the trees just out of sight of the cars passing on Union. I truly became a Motor Parkway fan for life.
1958 was just before I got hooked but what strikes me more than anything else is the footprint of the Rocky Hill Lodge. Wow! Talk about re-discovering relics! Neat start to a new series; thanks. Sam, III
Absolutely fabulous series of photos! Where have they been for 62 years and what is the story of their discovery?
The Western Terminus picture looking south is from the LIMP segment between the North Hempstead Tpke and 73rd Avenue bridges. It can help date the demolition of the NHT bridge!
That picture shows a straight path that stops abruptly before reaching the photographer. That is consistent to a photographer standing in what once would have been the footprint of graded rise to the NHT bridge. Therefore, this 1958 picture was taken after the demolition of the NHT bridge!
If the facing north photo is the second in the series, then photographer is capturing the straight LIMP segment that existed between the two bridges. Over the years, a “not-the-LIMP” path was created that is curvy and turns west, starting near the circled Queens Greenway pole in the attached 2018 picture shows. (The real LIMP remains shrouded in the woods and starts to climb a grade that once led to the demolished bridge.)
Yes, seen these photos
These are great photos
That girl is in a few of them
The wooden guardrails posts under the GCP bridge appear similar to the posts by the Wantagh Pkwy bridge in Levittown (2017 photo below courtesy of Sam and Dave Russo). Harvey Kidder in 1955 did not include the posts in his painting of the bridge.
There also appears two people sitting on a bench under the bridge
The first photo shows a new 1958 Cadillac in front of the Ford, looks modern compared to the rest of the cars.