About
The six Vanderbilt Cup Races held on Long Island from 1904 to 1910 were the greatest sporting events of their day, and the first international automobile road races held in the United States. The races had a far-reaching impact on the development of American automobiles and parkways. This site provides comprehensive information on the races, the Long Island Motor Parkway and current Long Island automotive events, car shows and news.
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Co-Founder and Writer: Howard Kroplick
Co-Founder: Dana Kroplick
Website by Eric Miller Design
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Recent Comments
Both the 1932 and 1942 photos show a clean peaceful country view.
From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
Back at the site today for a quick look before it started raining. From what I could see the huge slabs of roadway have been removed.
From Kleiner's Korner: UPDATE - Levittown Motor Parkway Site Being Excavated
I agree with Brian on this piece Art. It’s probably from a utility installation from the early days of Levittown. Those roadway pieces are huge!
From Kleiner's Korner: UPDATE - Levittown Motor Parkway Site Being Excavated
Think this was originally more rounded. With the eye in the middle, it looks very much like my cesspool covers.
From Kleiner's Korner: UPDATE - Levittown Motor Parkway Site Being Excavated
An Oct., 1908 article from The New-York Tribune mentioning the special road between Westbury and the Meadowbrook Lodge.
From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: A 1929 Curtiss B-2 Condor Bomber Flyover Over Roosevelt Field, Merrick Avenue and the Motor Parkway
Great details Sam and Al!!
From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
In fact this plane with registration nr35, was modiefied during the tour Chamberlin made in February 1928 and received new registration X-4248. This nr 35 was the personal Sperry messenger off Lawrence Sperry. It is not clear to me (yet) if this was the same Messenger that Lawrence Sperry ditched in the Britisch Channel which led to his unfortunate deadth
From Mystery Friday Foto #14 Solved:Clarence D. Chamberlin Taking Off from Stewart Avenue in 1928
The attached shows the amount that the Motor Parkway paid to lease the property for three years from James C. Smith in today’s Levittown for “grandstand purposes”. For comparison purposes, today’s homes on the site were bought for approx. $700,000 each back a few years. I hadn’t known the property was leased, however Vanderbilt may have changed his mind and outright bought the property instead. Thoughts?
From In Search of the Grandstand, Press Box/Officials Stand and Pits in Levittown
Amazing shots. And a reminder that indoor lighting has come a long way, as well as automobiles.
From VanderbiltCupRaces.com Exclusive: Photos of Old 16 at the 1948 Antique Auto Show from the Helck Family Collection
I like it this concept of unortodox reusing of floats.
From Flying Boat/Seaplane of the Week: Spencer-Larsen SL-12C Amphibian NX-20621
For stone, they used “LOTSA”. Lotsa star drills, lotsa sharpening, lotsa wedges, and lotsa hand hammering. In cold climates, they could pour water in the holes and let expansion do the cracking for them. But someone somewhere must have an old Sci. Amer. or ASCE Proceedings or such that explains how to cut concrete paving. Sam, III
From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
Sam, I never bothered to check out the details of installing expansion joints after the fact. Don’t think it was too hard to do, concrete then was not the concrete of today. More difficult I think, is how did they cut slabs of marble and granite 500 years ago.
From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
Al, I asked this once before in an earlier blog without an answer. How did they cut the paving in 1911 to install expansion joints? Mauls and chisels? No rotary diamond saws back then. Sam, III
From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
Art, Re., the photo showing a completed section of the Parkway. Note the lack on any expansion joints. Even a 4 foot wide sidewalk has expansion joints and only 5-6 feet apart. Here his a 22 foot wide expanse of concrete with none. On the entire 8 plus miles of concrete there wasn’t a single expansion joint. How come ? In those days the joints, for the most part, were a narrow metal contraption with a felt like material centrally located. These were cemented in place. The story I was told was that the joints wouldn’t stand up to the pounding of the race cars, loosen up and become a danger to the racers. Not only that, the joints would be a concern on high speed curves and slow up the cars. That year one of the goals of the race organizers was to establish new speed records, ( which they did ). The Parkway contractors thought they could solve the problem of concrete expanding and contracting by adding the wire mesh in the concrete mix. It didn’t work, Sections of concrete started heaving almost immediately, For the 1909 and 1910 races, repairs were made where necessary. In 1911 expansion joints were finally put in place.
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Howard Kroplick
Al, great info!
From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
Just realized the slight left bend on Little Neck Pkwy is still there today, and the precise location where Queens County Farm Museum is located.
From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
Thank you to all involved to preserve history !!!
From Update: Restoration of a section of the Motor Parkway in Garden City
Neat, Art; thanks! All the above comments are of interest but none address mine that provision seems to have been made for a trolley line. Could the excess width be solely due to Crowell’s requirement for “materially increased” expansion room? Sam, III
From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
Prior to the approval by Queens County for the construction of the Little Neck Road and other bridges in Queens, the President of the Borough, Lawrence Gresser, requested an “immediate investigation and report” from the Engineer in Charge, Robert R. Crowell. Here is the request and Mr. Crowell’s findings. Interesting read!
From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
Similar to the Commonwealth bridge, the high voltage electrical lines are running just ~20 feet above the Motor Parkway bridge! How did they get away with that? The low voltage telephone line is running underneath the bridge. Maybe stricter safety measures were just beginning to take hold in NYC.
From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge
My comment above should have read: “How did driving on the left start?” which was answered in the link provided.
From Kleiner's Korner: Recently Found Motor Parkway Construction Photos
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