Mystery Foto #25 Currently Under Dispute: Joe Tracy Testing the Motor Parkway in September 1908
Kleiner's Kolumn (Art Kleiner) challenged you to identify this weekend's Mystery Foto.
Answers to the Mystery Foto questions:
- Identify the location of the Mystery Foto, the location and orientation of the photographer. Provide a rationale.
On top of the Jerusalem Avenue Motor Parkway Bridge looking west in the Hempstead Plains (now Levittown).
Rationale: Tree formations on the horizon (Ladenburg Estate on the right of the Motor Parkway) and long straight-away of the Motor Parkway.
- Identify the automobile and its driver
Veteran driver Joe Tracy and the #9 Locomobile which would win the 1908 race as Old 16.
- Why was this automobile on the Motor Parkway and the date of the Mystery Foto?
Joe Tracy was paid to test out the Motor Parkway in September 1908. He was paid $62.30 for two days of tests.
Comments (3)
Congrats to Steve Lucas and Greg O. for identifying Joe Tracy doing a test run.
Semi-Kudos to Greg O. for recognizing the Jerusalem Avenue Bridge but got the orientation of the photographer wrong.
Be Safe, Stay Healthy, Save Lives,
Howard Kroplick
Close-Ups
Harper's Weekly, September 26, 1908
"Joseph Tracy making 95 miles per hour along the cement roadbed of the new Long Island motor parkway."
The same photographer took this photo from the Jerusalem Avenue Briadge looking east.
View looking west from the Officials' Stand/Press Box. Note the tree formations match those of the Mystery Foto.
Comments
This 1908 photo likely taken from on top of the Jerusalem Ave bridge looking west in Levittown’s open prarie (Island Trees). Though similar to the 1908 Carman Ave bridge view (below), this photo is missing both the Ladenburg windmill on the horizon and the water feed hose on the south side of the roadway. Guessing the two-seated vehicle possibly Motor Parkway photographer Nathan Lazarnick and associate in their Buick, driving into the sunset at about 3pm. If correct, that would place the future Long Island Aviation Country Club airfield to the immediate right, with its hangars further down on the right, and the future Levittown Grandstand (1908-10) more further down to the left. Great photo, Art
I think we might be looking west (based on the car’s shadow) in the vicinity of Bloomingdale Road in the Hempstead Plains (today’s Levittown). The Bloomingdale Road bridge had not yet been built. The driver could be Joe Tracy in his Locomobile during the summer of 1908 when he was testing the LIMP for the upcoming race, which he subsequently won.
This one has me a bit stumped, so this is another best guess from me especially since time was a bit short this weekend. Thought this might have been our favorite photographer in his Buick, but that’s certainly not his Buick!
I’m guessing this is Joe Tracy in his Locomobile, being paid $60 to make some initial test runs on the new Motor Parkway on Sept 6th 1908 before the opening of the parkway. Another guess is the photographer is on top of the Jerusalem Ave bridge looking East.
Oops, my comment wasn’t delivered, as well as others I presume.
This 1908 photo likely taken from on top of the Jerusalem Ave bridge looking west in Levittown’s open prarie (Island Trees). Though similar to the 1908 Carman Ave bridge view (below), it’s missing both the Ladenburg windmill on the horizon and the water feed hose on the south side of the roadway. Guessing the two seated vehicle likely Motor Parkway photographer Nathan Lazarnick and associate in their Buick, driving into the sunset at about 3pm. If correct, that would place the future Long Island Aviation Country Club airfield to the immediate right with its hangars further down on the right, and the future Levittown Grandstand (1908-10) more further down on the left. Great photo, Art