Greg O’s Garage; Newsday’s Big Apple Almanac Part 2
Part 2 of the 1990s regular feature of the Sunday Newsday featuring color illustrations of New York history by artist Patrick M. Reynolds.
These additional six comic strips courtesy of everyone's favorite Parkway guru, Al Velocci.
Greg O.
July 30th, 1995- The Sport of the Rich
Aug 6th, 1995- First Race in 1904
Aug 13th,1995- The Long Island Motor Parkway
Aug 20th, 1995- Laying the Groundwork
Aug 27th, 1995- World's First Concrete Highway
Old 16 is no longer on Long Island and is now at the Henry Ford Museum.
Sept 17th, 1995- Vandie's Toll Houses
It mentions that 'Vandie's' Roslyn and Garden City Lodges still exist, but no mention of the Great Neck lodge.
Comments
WOW! Amazing Newsday cartoon articles that included accurate events of the Vanderbilt Cup Races on Long Island. I missed this in the ‘90s. I now know why. Great post Greg, thank you and Al for sharing these gems. I began looking for any inaccuracies but could not find any except the length of the parkway. I still believe it was a 45.4 mi. length, end-to-end, not including the Jericho spur (connecting Motor Pkwy to the Jericho Tpke entrance). Great post guys
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Frank, On May 12, 1936, Kienzle, in a letter to the financier Ivor B. Clark, states the Parkway is exactly 44 miles long and the Commack spur is 2.1 miles in length making for a total of 46.1 miles.
Frank, Regarding inaccuracies in the Newsday Cartoon Series, there are a couple in the 9/17/95 issue. Pope was responsible for just the first six lodges, not twelve. Also, besides the Roslyn and Garden City lodges still standing in 1995, there were at least three others, right ?
Al - you’re right! Let me start with mileage;
The Commack Spur measurement by Google Earth satellite still matches at 2.10 mi.
I originally measured the 45.4 mi. LIMP length from Nassau Blvd to the Petit Trianon circle. That was a mistake.
After adjustments, the new measurements from Nassau Blvd to the Ronkonkoma lodge measured at 45.01 miles. I don’t have an answer for the one-mile discrepancy.
Al, you’re correct again. There were still three existent lodges at the time of the article, which were modified into something else; Great Neck, Mineola, and Ronkonkoma. Great info as always Al! Thank you.
Did Kienzle’s 1936 letter have a typo; most likely not. The one-mile discrepancy continues to haunt.
Frank, The Parkway was some what technically shorter when it closed in 1938 compared to the length of when it first opened. Over the years as municipalities widened roads that interacted with the Parkway, property was taken from the Parkway ROW to widen such roads especially in Suffolk County. Don’t recall the exactly how much was taken for the widening of Commack Rd., but it was substantial. In 1929 the State took 50 feet of the Pky ROW to widened Jericho Tpke. thru Mineola A good deal of property was taken in Queens by the City when the bridges were built, prior to that the cross roads to be bridged were for the most part only 16 feet wide. Later on with the building of Union Tpke., the Pky lost quite a bit of yardage there also. These are just some samples.
Al, I agree with local municipalitie’s chopping away at the parkway RoW’s width over many years. Space is always needed to expand. It’s understandable.
I’ve measured the 44.0 mi length of pkwy from the Ronkonkoma Lodge to the Hollis Court Blvd bridge, which is exactly 44.0 mi.
This section of the LIMP was a toll-free ride on the LIMP from Nassau Blvd to the Rocky Hill Lodge, where one can easily exit without paying the toll, I believe this practice was favored by local residents, but I don’t really know for sure.