Vanderbilt Cup Races

This is during early Motor Pkwy closure on Rt 67, about 1943. Looking forward to this week’s answers

From Mystery Foto #41 Solved: A 1938 View of the Queens Motor Parkway Bike Path Looking West from Bell Boulevard

This mystery had me struggling. It’s not a bicycle path in Queens, it’s a car path with well defined lines, missing the yellow center line defining two-way traffic (Queens bike path had a single center white line). Exhausted, my best guess is somewhere in Suffolk on Rt 67. Orientation? Forgetaboutit, there’s no shadow to determine anything. Very difficult. Super High-Five who guesses this. I’ll be back for closer examination

Top photo:  Cyclists struggling the 8% grade under GCP in Queens, 1940.

Great Motor Parkway Foto Howard!

From Mystery Foto #41 Solved: A 1938 View of the Queens Motor Parkway Bike Path Looking West from Bell Boulevard

Thanks for noting the hydrant, Frank.  Speaking of typos, note the “BYCYCLE ENCLOSURE”!  Was one to bicycle by cycle by the enclosure?  Sam, III

From Updated: Mystery Foto #40 Solved: A Historic 1938 Ground-Level View of the Western Terminus in Fresh Meadows

Another typo?  Queens T*o*pographical Bureau, more likely.  :·)  Sam, III

From Updated: Mystery Foto #40 Solved: A Historic 1938 Ground-Level View of the Western Terminus in Fresh Meadows

Why the name change from Nassau Blvd. to Horace Harding Blvd ?  That story goes back to 1923. That year J. Horace Harding, a NYC banker, headed up a group that donated money to fund a study by the Queens Typographical Bureau to extend Nassau Blvd. to the Nassau County line. In 1924 NYC began the process to make that happen and by 1928 the Motor Parkway was able to access Nassau Blvd. Harding died Jan 4, 1929. In April that year the City Council passed a resolution renaming the road after him since his was the prime reason for it’s being. Today the Queens portion of Route 495 is called the Horace Harding Expressway.

From Updated: Mystery Foto #40 Solved: A Historic 1938 Ground-Level View of the Western Terminus in Fresh Meadows

Let’s take a poll.  Did anyone else notice the URL and e-mail typo “a_long_island_swimming_poll”?  We could pool our answers!  Mean, ain’t I?  Hey - “weird bird-winged plane”.  Semi-elliptical low-winged monoplanes were quite rare.  Could that be the Seversky AP-7 racer, like the DS (Doolittle Special), based on the P-35, powered by a Pratt & Whitney 1,200 hp R-1830 Twin Wasp engine, and flown by Jackie Cochran when she won the 1938 Bendix Trophy race, setting a women’s air speed record?  More nostalgia, too - Hardie Gramatky is exceptionally dear to my heart; he wrote and illustrated “Little Toot” (the indomitable little tugboat)!  Sam, III

From Mystery Foto #39 Solved: The Long Island Aviation Country Club (Circa 1940-1945)

Eagle-eyed Art, I believe you are correct! Westbury Rd and trolley overpass, and Jericho Tpke underpass by the Mineola Lodge. The LIRR bridge is covered by trees. 1937, one year before closing.

From Mystery Foto #39 Solved: The Long Island Aviation Country Club (Circa 1940-1945)

Thanks Frank and Richard - Frank, are there bridges towards the right as I’ve circled here? 

Richard - the painting was not a Fortune cover but in the actual issue of August, 1937.  Unless it was used at another time as a cover.

From Mystery Foto #39 Solved: The Long Island Aviation Country Club (Circa 1940-1945)

Someone was nice enough to send me a nice reproduction of that artwork used on a Fortune cover. It is fairly accurate, too. Seems to have been based upon the LIFE photog’s pictures of a picnic held there.  I don’t know which issue of Fortune it was used in, but it wasn’t the Aug., 1937 issue. ( I just checked eBay, and it wasn’t on the cover of ANY of its 1937 issues.) Does anyone know which year’s issue it was?

From Mystery Foto #39 Solved: The Long Island Aviation Country Club (Circa 1940-1945)

The Old Country Rd bridge/underpass can be seen in the Roosevelt School photo above, along the left edge of the photo. A small section of Motor Parkway can be seen more to the right as it begins its decent towards the bridge. Great shot Art!

From Mystery Foto #39 Solved: The Long Island Aviation Country Club (Circa 1940-1945)

Here’s a picture from the same issue of Fortune.  Can anyone identify the cars lined up on the pier?

From Mystery Foto #39 Solved: The Long Island Aviation Country Club (Circa 1940-1945)

Kleiner’s Korner provides the following:

Here’s a neat painting of my favorite “swank” airfield found in “Fortune” magazine of August, 1937.  Artist was Hardie Gramatky, named as one of America’s top 20 watercolorists. 

https://www.californiawatercolor.com/pages/hardie-gramatky-biography 

The photo was in an article titled “Private Flying” which also contained other photos of the time.  The insignia could be bought for $15 from “The Sportsman Pilot” a magazine devoted to private flying - the idea was to suggest the pilot’s principal interest.  Wonder if any exist for the Motor Parkway! 

From Mystery Foto #39 Solved: The Long Island Aviation Country Club (Circa 1940-1945)

I keep forgetting Peck Av was proposed in the topo. The roadway came after the Bike Enclosure. Time for coffee!

From Updated: Mystery Foto #40 Solved: A Historic 1938 Ground-Level View of the Western Terminus in Fresh Meadows

Update: I found the sole hydrant on the curbside

From Updated: Mystery Foto #40 Solved: A Historic 1938 Ground-Level View of the Western Terminus in Fresh Meadows

It makes sense. The lamp is directly over Peck Av, but I see no hydrants anywhere in this topo.

I know they were renting bicycles at one point, but why would they put a 47ft Bike Enclosure in the middle of the street, entirely blocking Peck Av?? Perhaps permissible while the Fresh Meadows Grove apartments nearby were being constructed? I dunno! :D

From Updated: Mystery Foto #40 Solved: A Historic 1938 Ground-Level View of the Western Terminus in Fresh Meadows

Sam - The “sun” symbol looked electrical but had to look them up. That one is a ceiling mounted light (street light). The other linear circles, with numbers inside I believe, resemble the welded receptacle symbol for electric. The fire hydrant is below

From Updated: Mystery Foto #40 Solved: A Historic 1938 Ground-Level View of the Western Terminus in Fresh Meadows

Fab Fair facts, Frank!  Blew it up and look at all the ribbon wire fencing in concrete posts!  Bravo!  Don’t have my arch./civil eng. handbook handy; what are the symbols along the south side of HHB-cum-WFB - is the fire hydrant one of them?  Sam, III

From Updated: Mystery Foto #40 Solved: A Historic 1938 Ground-Level View of the Western Terminus in Fresh Meadows

Amazing topographic map Howard! Also including 160 ft wide World’s Fair Blvd as Al posted!! And revealing proposed Peck Av just south of existing Motor Parkway!!! Bases are loaded here. Who’s up to bat? Great stuff!

From Updated: Mystery Foto #40 Solved: A Historic 1938 Ground-Level View of the Western Terminus in Fresh Meadows

Playing the winning hand (to compete in the Vanderbilt Cup Race)! Note the grandstand.  From “The Automobile”, Sept. 27, 1906.

From Starting Lineup: The 1906 American Elimination Trial

A May 10, 1939 survey of the Bike Path at the Western Terminus was added to the post

From Updated: Mystery Foto #40 Solved: A Historic 1938 Ground-Level View of the Western Terminus in Fresh Meadows