Vanderbilt Cup Races

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

Mystery Foto #44B… This is the Long Island Motor Parkway bridge over Little Neck Parkway in Queens. This view is looking north from Union Turnpike. The bridge was different than the majority of MP bridges because when it was built in 1912, New York City required that the Parkway authorities use railroad-type trestle construction over any Queens public roads. This photo is post 1938.

From Mystery Foto #44B Solved: A 1942 Photo of the Little Neck Parkway Motor Parkway Bridge

I was superintendent of North Hills CC in Manhasset from 2002 to 2016.  The post pictured is not original nor was the one it replaced.  The road in question it marks out is too narrow to be the VMP.  It is adjacent to the 13 fairway and it was an access road to an old dump that was abandoned when the Fairways condos were built. The club is about a mile north of the VMP.

From The Mystery of the North Hills Country Club "Vanderbilt Pkwy" Road Sign

Very interesting to learn, Al. Thanks for the update. I guess the LIRR (PRR owned them) didn’t foresee the threat that the internal combustion engine would be for the railroads in general. I am not saying it was good or bad. Obviously, it would have happened one way or the other. Looking forward, none of this has really hurt the LIRR, pandemic aside, or the mass transit business around the world. People have options.

From Kleiner's Korner: Recently Found Motor Parkway Construction Photos

Additional documentation from the Exec. Vice-President of the Queens Chamber of Commerce pertaining to the proposal for a monorail making use of the Motor Parkway’s ROW.  From the files of William K. Vanderbilt Jr. and courtesy of the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum.

From The Proposed Motor Parkway Monorail in Queens

Wayne, Regarding your comment .... LIRR first hint of involvement with the Long Island Motor Parkway, 1908.  Actually, the LIRR could be considered one of the founders of the Long Island Motor Parkway. Ralph Peters, the president or the LIRR at the time, served on the five man Plan & Scope Committee and also on the original three man Finance Committee. It was surveyors from the LIRR, at no cost to the Parkway, that first began laying out the Parkway ROW, He also made his personal private railroad car available to the Plan & Scope Committee members, also at no cost.  So fully committed to the Parkway’s success, the LIRR purchased $24,000 of the Parkway’s stock and bonds. Dollar wise, that was in the top five. On top of that, Ralph Peters, personally, bought $9,000 worth of stock and bonds.  Broadly, the relation with Vanderbilt/Race/Parkway began in 1904.

From Kleiner's Korner: Recently Found Motor Parkway Construction Photos