Video “The Queens Motor Parkway Bike Path”
Nycbikemaps has posted this 2009 five-minute video of the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway bike path including a good portion of the Motor Parkway in Fresh Meadows. The 20-minute bike ride was played back at 4 times the speed. As a result, you can visualize what it was like to ride on this section of the Motor Parkway at around 40 miles per hour.
Here are the timed-coded features of the video:
1 minute 19 seconds: After traveling on the Kissena Greenway, the cyclist enters the Motor Parkway near Peck Avenue and 199th Street.
1 minute 42 seconds: On the 73rd Avenue Motor Parkway Bridge built in 1926.
2 minutes 40 seconds: The beautiful Hollis Hills Terrace Motor Parkway Bridge built in 1925.
3 minutes 53 seconds: The Springfield Boulevard Motor Parkway Bridge built in 1924. Note the entrance/exit ramp to the left of the bridge in this photo.
3 minutes 59 seconds: The location of the Rocky Hill Lodge (seen here in the 1930s). Note the entrance/exit ramps on both sides of the toll booth. The right ramp can still be seen in the video.
4 minutes 26 seconds: The bike path going under the Grand Central Parkway. The photo shows the same location as seen in 1940 with the original Grand Central Parkway bridges over the Motor Parkway built by Robert Moses.
4 minutes 38 seconds: Nycbikemaps leaves the Motor Parkway bike path. Thanks for the great tour!!
This is a link to a pdf of the entire Motor Parkway path in Queens.
Links to related posts on VanderbiltCupRaces.co:
Archives: Long Island Motor Parkway Films, Videos and Slideshows
Comments
Fascinating. I came upon this path almost accidently a couple of years ago from the Shea Stadium parking lot. I came back again with my bike and rode over to Union Tpke. It was only when I mentioned the ride to my cousin who lives in the area that I heard about the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway. Before he told me, I only knew of it as an exit on the L.I.E! Thanks. I can’t wait to go back when the weather is warmer.
I’m not sure that the picture you have from 1940 for the 4 min 26 sec mark is actually of the same place.
What you can’t tell from the video is that the LIMP starts going downhill well before the first overpass and then sharply downhill as soon as you get to the overpass. Maybe they did some major changes when widening the road in later years?