The Day the Long Island Motor Parkway in Nassau County Actually Closed
Reflecting the impact of the Depression and the ever expanding Northern and Southern State Parkways, the Motor Parkway officially closed on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1938. However, Mitch Kahn found this cover article in the July 2, 1938 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle indicating the Nassau County section of the Motor Parkway remained open for another two and half months.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
One of the many accidents at the Clinton Road bridge.
The resurfacing of a section of the Motor Parkway for the World's Fair never happened.
A map of the Motor Parkway (circa 1925).
Comments
It seems rate of population growth was unexpected, thus bringing quick improved changes to existing arterial roadways, disregarding historical standings. This is where most of the LIMP remnants were lost. With toll free parkways now in use, it seemed irrelevant to save LIMP remnants, remnants that are now yearned today.
As neat looking the Clinton Rd overpass was, I probably would have chose to drive thru the East and West openings of the bridge. You would be off the roadway, but there looks to be more room on each side than the middle opening. The bridge was built well, but the middle opening looks narrow.
I beg to differ. The LIMP in Nassau is still there and open to all! Free of charge!
Go and explore and enjoy it. Nassau is the best section as so much of it is still “original” bringing you back in time.
Perhaps it’s best to say that the LIMP closed as a business on Easter Sunday 1938.
In an July 1st article, The New York Times reported that this last deed transfer was an outright gift from Lakeville Holding and Development and not surrendered in lieu of back taxes.
The World’s Fair roadway concept was a faint echo of Regional Plan Association’s unsuccessful proposal to use the LIMP as the backbone of a Queens to Farmingdale “freeway,” in its modern sense. The RPA had decried the piecemeal breakup of the LIMP, the last piece of which was this transfer.
Was Robert Moses in power at this time? I can imagine him vetoing any ‘rival’ roadway to what he had put together.