Vanderbilt Cup Races

Frank, In all likelihood not all the spectators on the Nibbe bridge came by train to the race. Nibble’s farm was quite large with frontage on both Powell Ave. and Plainview Rd. Like some other property owners abutting the race course, he most likely provided parking also for those spectators arriving by automobile.

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The J11 Chalmers-Detroit at the Nibbe Farmway Bridge in Central Park (Bethpage) on its way to winning the Jericho Sweepstakes

Great point Al; No cars allowed on this narrow farmway bridge! Admission fees were likely collected on this private bridge. Spectators arriving from CRR trains had to walk at least 3/4 mile to reach this observation point over the Motor Parkway!

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The J11 Chalmers-Detroit at the Nibbe Farmway Bridge in Central Park (Bethpage) on its way to winning the Jericho Sweepstakes

Understood Steve, but now that you mentioned it, I wonder if that’s Peter Nibbe below observing bridge activity on his property/bridge. It’s a long shot but interesting nonetheless in 1908

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The J11 Chalmers-Detroit at the Nibbe Farmway Bridge in Central Park (Bethpage) on its way to winning the Jericho Sweepstakes

Frank - I have no idea; just trying to inject a little humor into the discussion.

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The J11 Chalmers-Detroit at the Nibbe Farmway Bridge in Central Park (Bethpage) on its way to winning the Jericho Sweepstakes

I did some internet sleuthing, and I know the address. I won’t reveal it here.

From Mystery Foto #1 Solved: A 1940 view of the Motor Parkway at Half Hollow Road in Dix Hills

Steve - Nibbes would’ve been 59 in the photo. Are you referring to the (person?) standing by the bicycle below the bridge?

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The J11 Chalmers-Detroit at the Nibbe Farmway Bridge in Central Park (Bethpage) on its way to winning the Jericho Sweepstakes

Howard, One factor that narrowed the bridge identity was the lack of automobiles and horse and carriages. Think Nibbe charged a fee to the spectators ?

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The J11 Chalmers-Detroit at the Nibbe Farmway Bridge in Central Park (Bethpage) on its way to winning the Jericho Sweepstakes

The 1962 Studebaker Avanti in the garage is owned by my real estate partner Ian Zwerdling. I will profile it in an upcoming post.

From Mustang HoofBeats December 2021: A visit to Howard Kroplick's great car collection

Frank- It’s really cool how even the headlight bezels were cut down and reshaped, so factory replacements won’t fit. If you look closely at the closeup of the grill, you may notice how that was cut and sectioned towards the bottom.

From Restoration Update: Hear the 1962 Holman-Moody Challenger III Roar in the New Year

This is a closeup of the Nibbe’s farmway bridge I wished I had obtained back during the Apr2013 mystery. https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/mystery_foto_8_can_you_identify_these_two_motor_parkway_bridges_near_the_hu
This is the farmway bridge above Motor Parkway looking south in Bethpage (Central Park). Deadman’s curve #2 is after the bridge. That could be racer J11 of the Jericho racing team during the Meadowbrook sweepstakes.

From Mystery Foto #2 Solved: The J11 Chalmers-Detroit at the Nibbe Farmway Bridge in Central Park (Bethpage) on its way to winning the Jericho Sweepstakes

Great ongoing restoration. Is it still possible to obtain original chrome headlight trims, or do they have to be built from scratch?. The Sun Tachometer is advanced for that vehicle year. Love the precise graphics. Great work by Ida Works among other contributors!

From Restoration Update: Hear the 1962 Holman-Moody Challenger III Roar in the New Year

Thank you David and to all for adding additional insights and comments into this debate.  Very much appreciated!

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

Al Prete - I believe below is Arlene and Carmine’s stretch of Motor Parkway in Dix Hills. Amazing how they managed to uncover, and then preserve the historic roadway!!

From Mystery Foto #1 Solved: A 1940 view of the Motor Parkway at Half Hollow Road in Dix Hills

A wonderful posting Art!
This “debate” is actually a trick question well-known to old geology majors like myself.
A hill that raises 250 feet from sea level, is a higher (taller) hill than a hill that raises 200 feet from a base elevation of 100, even though that second point has the higher elevation (300 feet).

“Highest point” usually equates to highest elevation, so Jayne’s Hill (also known as High Hill) is the highest point on L.I., usually measured as 399 feet (between 380 and 400 according to the latest USGS mapping).

However, the hill rises from the Huntington Valley, the floor of which Route 110 more-or-less traces by the Walt Whitman Shops. This floor has an elevation of about 150 feet. (An old benchmark by the Walt Whitman Home is at 153 feet.) Therefore, one can say that Jayne’s Hill rises about 399 minus 150 or about 250 feet from its base.

Harbor Hill, according to the latest USGS mapping is at an elevation between 360 and 380 feet. However, if we were to walk the flank of the hill, we would be walking all the way down to Roslyn Pond, elevation 13 feet. 360 feet (and Harbor Hill is higher than that)  minus 13 feet is 347 feet, making Harbor Hill the “highest/tallest hill,” as measured from its base.

Some of the other postings use old USGC measurements or maps that can vary from modern, more accurate measurements.  Howard, your cell phone readings illustrate the reason geophysicists don’t use cell phone to take elevation measurements!
As for Al V.‘s side issue:
A comparison of 1898 and 2019 USGS topographic maps makes it unlikely that Deepdale was ever the highest point. In 1898, the location of the future mansion was between 240 and 260 feet; in 2019, the same location was measured as between 250 and 260 feet. (By the way, in the same 1898 map, Harbor Hill was measured at 391 feet and in a related 1900 map, High Hill was measured in excess of 420 feet, illustrating how old maps got things wrong.)

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

Sounds healthy! Can wait to see how it runs!

From Restoration Update: Hear the 1962 Holman-Moody Challenger III Roar in the New Year

Howard’s nicely redone Black Beast garage floor work, photo of before.

From Mustang HoofBeats December 2021: A visit to Howard Kroplick's great car collection

Thanks to Al Prete for the cartoon reference - love that !  ( you have to understand that I taught art for 35+ years so this would be a treat to see!)

From Mystery Foto #1 Solved: A 1940 view of the Motor Parkway at Half Hollow Road in Dix Hills

I find it interesting that even in the twenty first century, the elevations of these “mountains” are not definitively known.  I think there is no debate that Jayne’s Hill is the highest on Long Island.  As for OHEKA, a comparison of the 1903 USGS topographical map and the 2019 map shows that the hill the mansion sits on remains at 280’—not nearly high enough to claim highest honors and debunking the claim that Kahn elevated the hill.

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island

In regards to town cars, my dad had a Springfield RR P1 Riviera Town Car, which was in awful shape when he got it.  It was supposed to be restored (long story), actually was in a shop at the time of Hurricane Agnes with the shop being flooded.  Despite that, still a beautiful car.  Our family sold it off years later and I’ve no clue where it ended up.  But it supposedly was once owned by the founder of Time Magazine, though who ran it into the ground I don’t know.  It was a 1929, aluminum head engine, one of the most elegant cars, IMHO, that Rolls Royce of America ever produced.  But like any town car, it had that open front.  I don’t remember if there was a ‘removable roof’ available for the front or whether it had windows.

From Walt Gosden Article: A Vanderbilt Locomobile

Putting an FM radio tower like WALK on the top of a hill at high elevation is a no brainer - FM signals are line of sight and do not follow the curvature of the ground as AM signals do. 

If any large object (such as a mountain, tall building or even airplane in flight) were to block the signal, reception would be difficult at best, next to impossible at worst (it isn’t accidental that before the WTC, virtually every FM antenna (and later, TV antenna) were on top of the Empire State Building for that very reason. 

Hence, tower height above average terrain is critical for FM antennae, even more so than the actual transmitter output power. 

From Kleiner's Korner Vote Request: The Ongoing Debate Over the Highest Hill on Long Island