Vanderbilt Cup Races

From Andy Hartwell:

Last night’s presentation was wonderful! I really enjoyed learning so much about a man whose name I connected with ‘The Bridge’ since I was a teen.  It was heartwarming to hear so many tell their stories about Clark.  Looking at some of the slides of the invites and the auction announcements it sure seems his sense of humor would have endeared me to him had I ever been fortunate enough to meet him!

Anyway, just wanted to say I really enjoyed the night. Your presentation, as always, was spot on. I would have to characterize the entire night as ‘professionally casual”, and that is meant as a compliment. You deftly combined static slides with expert commentary and encouraged those in attendance to flesh out the content with their own remembrances. Excellent job!  Extremely enjoyable night!

I posted my pics here http://ashautophotos.smugmug.com/Cars/Museums-and-Shows/Henry-Austin-Clark-Tribute/45861926_8TnzzN
If you have a need for any of them, help yourself. If you want a higher res version, shoot me an email and I will send it to you.

Again, great evening! Thanks again!
Andy

From An Amazing Evening: "A Tribute to Henry Austin Clark, Jr. and the Long Island Automotive Museum"

Certainly was a memorable night for some of people, who knew him and worked with him. I was very surprised that so many knew him as they were growing up. Really learned a lot about him that wasn’t known, it even amazed you Howard. Be back later on tonight.

From An Amazing Evening: "A Tribute to Henry Austin Clark, Jr. and the Long Island Automotive Museum"

Louis Chevrolet &  Joe Nelson, Matheson Racer, 1908 race.

From Mystery Foto #95 Solved: Louis Chevrolet and Joe Nelson Preparing for the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race

The man with the big moustache is of course Louis Chevrolet. He drove a Matheson in the Vanderbilt Cup races of 1908 with no. 15. On the photo he and his mechanician Joe Nelson are posing on the 90hp Matheson. During the race he already was out in the first round because of a cracked cylinder. It isn’t the car with no. 15 shown on the website by the way. This is in fact the Buick he drove in the 1909 Vanderbilt Cup race (indeed shown there too), coincidentally (?) with the same number. The 1908 lettering style was more square and also the gas tank had a different size. Besides the support for the hand levers is a full circle for the Matheson, but only a semi-circle for the Buick. The only photo of the 1908 Matheson I could find, is the frontal view photo of the Matheson team, with his team mate James Ryall in no. 7.

From Mystery Foto #95 Solved: Louis Chevrolet and Joe Nelson Preparing for the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race

Dont know the mechanician, but the mustache and cigarette belongs to Louis Chevrolet who raced in the 1905 1908 1909 and 1910 Vanderbilt Cup races, i think the racing car was called a darraq.

From Mystery Foto #95 Solved: Louis Chevrolet and Joe Nelson Preparing for the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race

I’ve ridden my bike along the Central RR and LIMP eastward from Newbridge Road to Deadman’s Curve and north to Central Ave and eastward over that bridge. However, theres a lot of dismounting and crossing streets with no traffic signals and it can be kinda dangerous, as well as the path between the houses i saw some mean dogs running loose and lots of sharp stuff littered everywhere so it needs some work for sure.

From LIHerald.com: Preserving history with a bike path

In looking back at this whole thing, and scratching my head days later, the facts are plain to see:

#1 Central Avenue crosses the railroad tracks east of the bridge and continues east.

#2 Central Avenue runs parallel to the tracks on the west side of the bridge and under the bridge, only crossing the tracks east of the bridge.

#3 the RR always ran north west \\ southeast. LIMP ran due North South   II, Central Avenue Due West and East =.

#4 Why we are so confused today is because what we see today is a complete erasure of what was where central avenue crosses the tracks further southeast and goes over the SOB expressway (in the old days it connected due east of the bridge onto the now truncated road on the other side of the SOB that has that kneebone bend south and re connected with central avenue near the entrance to the BSPkwy.

    Please correct me if im wrong, but I conclude that the actual mystery foto was taken east of the bridge, north of the tracks, and the photographer was standing right smack on Central Avenue looking west after the railroad crossing (not pictured) , right next to the driveway leading into the Stymus Farmway underpass.  Mike

From Mystery Foto #94 Solved: The Stymus Farmway Underpass of the Motor Parkway's Longest Bridge

henry a clark had 2 curved dash olds,one atop the entrance and a good one on display inside the big building very close to the rear door on the east side.it never ran when i was there

From What was the Long Island Automotive Museum?

i worked at the museum before it opened and until 1951 and i don’t think joe tracy worked there at that time

From What was the Long Island Automotive Museum?

I wish I could make the tribute,as i was the first employe of the museum,me and norris hopping moved most of the cars into the museum from barns austie had in bridgehampton.me and austie raced the mercer 1911 in bridgehampton and were in the 1951 bridge program.the car just sold for 2.3 mil,we got the car to 87mph.austie had a good eye for relic autos.the moon was a good racer too.
                                          thank you
                                          gene martin

From An Amazing Evening: "A Tribute to Henry Austin Clark, Jr. and the Long Island Automotive Museum"

Looking forward to this one. See you there.

From An Amazing Evening: "A Tribute to Henry Austin Clark, Jr. and the Long Island Automotive Museum"

Hey Frank. It’s great that you supply these older aerials here. In that time period, the LIMP is totally intact and you can also see the beginnings of the present time. Too be quite honest, I did’nt think Howard would approve my previous post. A bit angry I was, that’s not what this is all about. Sorry, Howard. And thankyou.

From Mystery Foto #94 Solved: The Stymus Farmway Underpass of the Motor Parkway's Longest Bridge

Not getting definite answers on this one are we? It’s all guessing, logical answers. The pictures are misleading and confusing. I’m agreeing with Frank on this one

From Mystery Foto #94 Solved: The Stymus Farmway Underpass of the Motor Parkway's Longest Bridge

Howard, I’m sticking with the north-side-opening theory and Bob’s account should nail the case tightly closed, but that circular dirt path south of the tracks in the ‘38 aerial throws a wrench into the machine and no doubt, will keep this debate burning bright for years to come. Open the popcorn and enjoy the show! Thank you Al, Hector, and Howard for the wonderful challenge.

From Mystery Foto #94 Solved: The Stymus Farmway Underpass of the Motor Parkway's Longest Bridge

Learning about our local history is a hobby for me, and I normally don’t take it too seriously. Yes, it’s quite obvious that the opening was a road /path for farm use. The question what was the use of this opening, it’s primary function wasn’t as a road or ped path. So I tried to come up with a not so obvious answer. Although the creek waters didn’t exactly extend to the opening, they certainly reached into the farm property. So water never ran through this opening, OK. I left other info within my answer like “passageway for horses,cows and other uses”. From what I gather, it was a underpass for farm use.Primarily a farm road. I wasn’t correct word for word, but I had the right idea; not with the drainage hypothesis though.

From Mystery Foto #94 Solved: The Stymus Farmway Underpass of the Motor Parkway's Longest Bridge

Was I right about the bridge going north and south, which makes the opening east and west? Thanks.
_______________________________________

From Howard Kroplick

The bridge is approximately north/south.

From Mystery Foto #94 Solved: The Stymus Farmway Underpass of the Motor Parkway's Longest Bridge

Hi Howard!  Bob’s remembers this bridge looking west as he climbed on it in his youth.  The opening allowed the farmers, Stymus and Nibbie to go into the village.

From Mystery Foto #94 Solved: The Stymus Farmway Underpass of the Motor Parkway's Longest Bridge

Never thought of looking in your book. This was a very good mystery, challenging one, many ways to answers, but which one is right. Waiting to see who got what right, including myself,

From Mystery Foto #94 Solved: The Stymus Farmway Underpass of the Motor Parkway's Longest Bridge

And, as the 1907 survey seems to point out, the path under the opening joins central avenue, indicating that perhaps it was the actual driveway leading to the Stymus farm. The map may have been printed a few years after the farm’s “Hayday”.

From Mystery Foto #94 Solved: The Stymus Farmway Underpass of the Motor Parkway's Longest Bridge

OK the rectangular opening lies north of the bridge, looking at the maps and their confusing orientation is what makes this a good question but the LIMP ran due north and south, the RR kinda northwest south east, so if the opening was not a public roadway or pedestrian path, then it must have a private farmway underpass for Stymus’s Farm, who owned property on both sides of the bridge (and a path on the 1907 street map looks like a foot path between the town Plaza by the school and the other side bordering his neighbor Nibbe).  I was also thinking that it could have been a drainage culvert, but it looks too high up in the air to serve that purpose, so, yep my best guess is that the opening is on the north side of the bridge, then used as a private farmway underpass.

From Mystery Foto #94 Solved: The Stymus Farmway Underpass of the Motor Parkway's Longest Bridge