That was great, Robert. Thank God for people like you who appreciate history! Having been born on LI and lived here most of my life, there's nowhere else quite like it...
Awesome video, thanks! 😎🤩 Back in the early 80s my friends and I would hang out on the old trestle over the tracks in Williston Park right where you were at 14:23. Good times!
I am a lifelong resident of Garden City in my mid-40's and have always heard wonderful stories of the LIMP from my uncle Bob Hickson who was a LILCO engineer and auto enthusiast who restored an old electric buckboard car called the Auto Red Bug. Mr. Miller very much reminded me of my uncle, who volunteered at the Cradle of Aviation where he would give tours.
Great history and I'm glad someone is working to preserve and document what we still can.
At 13:29 of the video, when you are climbing up the embankment to where the bridge used to cross Roslyn Rd. in East Williston, there is a driveway immediately south on Roslyn Rd. that runs down parallel to the LIMP west towards Williston Park/Albertson that leads to what was once the Roslyn Lodge toll house, but has been a residence for a long time. As a child -- with a paper route, I used to deliver the paper to this home back in the mid 1970s. I also remember exploring and hiding out up on the parkway and using it as a shortcut to reach the Williston Park pool (back when the bridge still spanned the LIRR Oyster Bay line. I also remember playing along the section in Albertson back in the late 1960s before moving to East Williston. Thanks for the great documentary which brought back some sweet memories from the long lost days of youth. Here is the link to some info and pictures of Roslyn Lodge. www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/the_motor_parkway_toll_collection_structures_5_the_roslyn_lodge_in_east_wil
I never knew what the bridge at Springfield Blvd. was for; I guessed a railroad spur. My father drove there in his 33 Ford V8 and educated me. We used to hike, bike and cross country ski from the Clearview to the abrupt end at Winchester Blvd. Thanks for your excellent post and good works!
Fascinating. When I was a young kid in the '50's, my father would periodically point out parts of "the old Motor Parkway." I could not quite wrap my mind around the idea of an old road that was in disrepair and no longer used. Thanks for this history.
Would hear from our parents too about the Old Motor Parkway. Little did I know it ran a mile from us, through East Meadow and Levittown and Garden City .
Enjoyed this video, thank you. Spent many days bike riding on the Motor Parkway from Cunningham Park to Alley Pond Park and back. Truly enjoy historic videos that are close to where I live.
I never knew I lived so close to a piece of history! I’m 20 years old and have never heard of anything about this road until a few weeks ago. I frequent the Bethpage bike path, so after reading up on the LIMP I took a bike ride and found remains of the road just today near the newly paved portion of the bike path. I wish you gave more information on the Bethpage portion of the path, wish Nassau county did more with it. Thank you for the awesome video
Same here I wished I watched this last month when i decided to bike from Carle Place to Wallstreet manhattan. My original plan was to take the service road all the way down. But luckily on google maps, it directed me on Vanderbilt Motor parkway and queens blvd. 5am from Alley pond park all the way down it was really dark. I wonder if we're allowed to be on the road 24/7. how long is the Bethpage path
Great video! When I'm bicycling from the City to Long Island I always take the old Motor Parkway through Queens. Always the high-point of my trip (literally and figuratively!).
love the vidio. My grandfather grew up in Abertson and when I was a kid I remeber him telling me about watching the ford race cars flying by when he was a kid in the late 1920's. Still a long streach of the road that you can still see from Willis Ave at the VFW hall that i think runs dowm to Roslyn road. Still paved
Thank you so very much for the journey down "Memory Lane". I lived on Motor Parkway from 1947 until 1963, and then my husband and I live at 2487 Motor Parkway.......until we moved to Florida in 1970. My father's family had a summer bungalow off Motor Parkway (Parkway Blvd.) from1923-1950's. . I remember the "Vanderbilt mansion" on lake as a young child. Our private beach was right next to the Vanderbilt property. . Thank you Mr. Miller for a wonderful, and deightful video. .
A wonderful documentary for those who have an interest in the colorful history of the New York area!! I'd love to see more informative programs such as this posted on youtube regularly. It is such a shame that most people would rather listen to the filth thats played now a days on the radio rather than watch something that would expand their knowledge instead. It's an interesting fact that the vast majority of New York was more or less farm lands and woods until about the late 1800's. Within thr past 200 years, human beings have accomplished unimaginable feats. Even to ponder how much different the city will look in 50-100 years is incredible. Thank you for posting something that gets more interesting as time passes. History is what will lead us into the future. Best Regards, John Backlund
I love this video and I thank you for your time and effort to make it. I recently discovered the Motor Parkway while walking the trails of Alley Pond Park and am now obsessed with it. 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
Thank you sir for this great show. I spent much of my youth exploring what we called "Old Motor Road" in Fresh Meadows. To see it now 50+ years later brings back so many fond memories.
Nice job documenting the LIMP. However, I would've liked to see some of the Parkway as it goes through Alley Pond Park and Oakland Gardens in Queens. The parkway goes through an actual neighborhood behind people's backyards and garages.
beautiful road, love history, so great to find places like this still in existence :) even better that it's protected and still able to be used for cycling
The Locomobiles were great, so were the Stutz and a lot of lesser known high performance cars like the Appleson Jack rabbit. But by all accounts the bomb of all bombs during that era was the LOZIER. When I was a child there were elderly people who as children, were taken to the Vanderbilt cup races. They could also tell you about how powerful prior 1925 the steam cars, especially brands like the White, were.
14:13 was true comic relief with that kid jogger almost losing balance running into everybody... funny stuff. Hey. Nice video, well edited, nicely written on a subject ALL highway people should know about. A fellow Long Islander with similar interest, you saved me a lot of time wanting to explore what you did for me . !!! Thanks for taking me along through video!
I lived a block from Motor pkwy in the section between 107 and Stewart Av. in the 60s. There was a LIRR track there too under the hi tension wires. Part of the pavement was there and the mounds building up for the (gone) bridge over Stewart Av were still there. In Bethpage park, down the path from the swings was the "WonderWall" - 1 of 2 cement abuttments that once held a bridge over a farm road. Wonder if its still there?
I enjoyed your video which answers some of my questions about the mysterious abandoned roadways I found while riding my bicycle between Alley Pond and Cunningham Parkin the mid 1970s. I wonder if there is a bicycle group who tour the entire LIMP today? I wish there were more people like you!
Thank you. I f Forwarded your message to my historian Robert Miller who is very happy to read it. There is a Facebook group dedicated to Alley Park through which the motor Parkway passes. Perhaps you may get information there about tours.
Excellent Video...I have walked all of the queens section and a good portion of the remaining sections in Nassau County....Wish there was film of driving on the V.M.P...
There are many small sections of the Vanderbilt that still remain...that not too many know about....there is a section between lakeville Rd and NHP rd on the "north side" of the Northern State Pky ...it actually terminates at the NHP rd entrance ramp...west bound....and on the South side of the Northern State pky....there is about 30ft Of the VMP...between the NSP...and the NHP rd exit Ramp.....visible in the winter ..this was the connection to the VMP between NHP rd and Shelter Rock Rd....where there was once a bridge now gone....
Thanks for your reply! I do remember finding an old map online and seeing that that land was marked Botto. The Wonderwall was there in the 70s, I used to climb up and sit on the top with my GF. Fond memories!
If you look carefully in those woods you will find a set of concrete steps facing towards the lake itself, they are there... I know I lived on that lake from 1973-1987, I've checked recently and there they were... Pretty cool
I lived in Nesconset in 2001 when I was working for Computer Associates in Islandia. My landlord mentioned this racetrack road when he was showing me around this area of Smithtown and Jamestown Long Island. Long Island was very fascinating to me.
Leave it to Newsday and Robert Miller. I grew up on a stretch of Motor Pkwy which was renamed Vanderbilt Pkwy. Between Deer Park Ave and Half Hollow Road. In the beginning of that film, you passed my best friend's house. My grandfather's brother in law owned a house out by the lake in the 1920's.
The Wonderwall (which was really the Botto Farmway Bridge so farmer Joe Botto could get to both sides of his farmland---yes, all that wooded area in Bethpage Park was once farmland!!) was torn down many years ago.
Is there a Part II? You should cover the Eisenhower Park section and Salisbury Park Dr and how the houses are so far away... Grandstand area in Levittown where there's a plaque...Deadman's Curve, most important part...near 135.. Bethpage State Park entrance road...Old Bethpage Road...you know..This one covered the western portion beautifully....Did I convince you? After that, I hear PBS calling.....
I lived in Bethpage for over 60yrs and my backyard was on the VMP. As you travel on Stewart ave north of Hemp Tpk right before yoy get to Crestline ave. You will see power lines. On the east side of Stewart ave you will see a mound of dirt that was a bridge over Stewart ave. They have since ripped up the parkway and put up condos (ugh) right inder the power lines!!!
QUEENSDUDE PLEASE READ THIS!!!!!I saw from this and another video that the LI motor parkway goes right through Great Neck South HS (which I attended) and is the cross country running course which was and probably still is mandatory for all students of gym class to run. It’s also the main passage to the football and baseball field. Every student knows that path. This is the first time that I or any of my friends knew any of it’s important. I don’t think the school even knows what it is. IT SHOULD BE LANDMARKED. I am going to try to get in touch with the school to let them know what they have. Many of my former colleagues are interested in it. How great would it be if the school taught younger students of what they were running on.
This is amazing! Thank you for this video. Is there a way to arrange personal guided tours? Today with googlemaps you can get an amazing view of the locations you mention in this video.
I left LI after 50 years in Bethpage. GOT OUT IN 1995 JUST IN TIME. Live in Va. now for 80% less then it in LI and I'm in a gated community with 5 beaches a pga golf corase club house swimming pools, and all for $700 a year in dues, and $1002 dollors in taxes on my 1800 sq ft home
Peck is the same route of the Central Rail Road ( 187os ) ...walk down Bell towards Union / under the overpass / make a Right at the first street / thats peck / head north west /you're on the parkway
I expect a mass exodus from LI as soon as the economy picks up and folks there can sell their houses. Go south to lower taxes as businesses have also gone.
Never knew how historic old motor is im right down the block in Williston park theres a town pool smack in the middle im gonna explore now great video
That was great, Robert. Thank God for people like you who appreciate history! Having been born on LI and lived here most of my life, there's nowhere else quite like it...
Awesome video, thanks! 😎🤩
Back in the early 80s my friends and I would hang out on the old trestle over the tracks in Williston Park right where you were at 14:23. Good times!
I am a lifelong resident of Garden City in my mid-40's and have always heard wonderful stories of the LIMP from my uncle Bob Hickson who was a LILCO engineer and auto enthusiast who restored an old electric buckboard car called the Auto Red Bug. Mr. Miller very much reminded me of my uncle, who volunteered at the Cradle of Aviation where he would give tours.
Great history and I'm glad someone is working to preserve and document what we still can.
Thank you!
My great grandfather recalled taking the Motor Parkway from the city to get to Cherry Grove for the summer in the 20s and 30s
At 13:29 of the video, when you are climbing up the embankment to where the bridge used to cross Roslyn Rd. in East Williston, there is a driveway immediately south on Roslyn Rd. that runs down parallel to the LIMP west towards Williston Park/Albertson that leads to what was once the Roslyn Lodge toll house, but has been a residence for a long time. As a child -- with a paper route, I used to deliver the paper to this home back in the mid 1970s. I also remember exploring and hiding out up on the parkway and using it as a shortcut to reach the Williston Park pool (back when the bridge still spanned the LIRR Oyster Bay line. I also remember playing along the section in Albertson back in the late 1960s before moving to East Williston. Thanks for the great documentary which brought back some sweet memories from the long lost days of youth. Here is the link to some info and pictures of Roslyn Lodge. www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/the_motor_parkway_toll_collection_structures_5_the_roslyn_lodge_in_east_wil
I never knew what the bridge at Springfield Blvd. was for; I guessed a railroad spur. My father drove there in his 33 Ford V8 and educated me. We used to hike, bike and cross country ski from the Clearview to the abrupt end at Winchester Blvd. Thanks for your excellent post and good works!
Fascinating. When I was a young kid in the '50's, my father would periodically point out parts of "the old Motor Parkway." I could not quite wrap my mind around the idea of an old road that was in disrepair and no longer used. Thanks for this history.
Would hear from our parents too about the Old Motor Parkway. Little did I know it ran a mile from us, through East Meadow and Levittown and Garden City .
Enjoyed this video, thank you. Spent many days bike riding on the Motor Parkway from Cunningham Park to Alley Pond Park and back. Truly enjoy historic videos that are close to where I live.
I never knew I lived so close to a piece of history! I’m 20 years old and have never heard of anything about this road until a few weeks ago. I frequent the Bethpage bike path, so after reading up on the LIMP I took a bike ride and found remains of the road just today near the newly paved portion of the bike path. I wish you gave more information on the Bethpage portion of the path, wish Nassau county did more with it. Thank you for the awesome video
Same here I wished I watched this last month when i decided to bike from Carle Place to Wallstreet manhattan. My original plan was to take the service road all the way down. But luckily on google maps, it directed me on Vanderbilt Motor parkway and queens blvd. 5am from Alley pond park all the way down it was really dark. I wonder if we're allowed to be on the road 24/7. how long is the Bethpage path
Being from Williston Park, we always hung out at “old motor”
Great video! When I'm bicycling from the City to Long Island I always take the old Motor Parkway through Queens. Always the high-point of my trip (literally and figuratively!).
love the vidio. My grandfather grew up in Abertson and when I was a kid I remeber him telling me about watching the ford race cars flying by when he was a kid in the late 1920's. Still a long streach of the road that you can still see from Willis Ave at the VFW hall that i think runs dowm to Roslyn road. Still paved
Thank you so very much for the journey down "Memory Lane". I lived on Motor Parkway from 1947 until 1963, and then my husband and I live at
2487 Motor Parkway.......until we moved to Florida in 1970. My father's family had a summer bungalow off Motor Parkway (Parkway Blvd.) from1923-1950's. . I remember the "Vanderbilt mansion" on lake as a young child. Our private beach was right next to the Vanderbilt property. . Thank you Mr. Miller for a wonderful, and deightful video. .
Did it happen to be 51 Parkway Blvd? That's where I grew up.
thanks for making us Queens residents aware of this historic parkway east of Winchester boulevard ! Classic!
A wonderful documentary for those who have an interest in the colorful history of the New York area!!
I'd love to see more informative programs such as this posted on youtube regularly. It is such a shame that most people would rather listen to the filth thats played now a days on the radio rather than watch something that would expand their knowledge instead.
It's an interesting fact that the vast majority of New York was more or less farm lands and woods until about the late 1800's. Within thr past 200 years, human beings have accomplished unimaginable feats. Even to ponder how much different the city will look in 50-100 years is incredible.
Thank you for posting something that gets more interesting as time passes. History is what will lead us into the future.
Best Regards,
John Backlund
I love this video and I thank you for your time and effort to make it. I recently discovered the Motor Parkway while walking the trails of Alley Pond Park and am now obsessed with it. 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
Thank you sir for this great show. I spent much of my youth exploring what we called "Old Motor Road" in Fresh Meadows. To see it now 50+ years later brings back so many fond memories.
Nice job documenting the LIMP.
However, I would've liked to see some of the Parkway as it goes through Alley Pond Park and Oakland Gardens in Queens. The parkway goes through an actual neighborhood behind people's backyards and garages.
I thought I saw the ghosts of my grandparents in their 1923 Durant driving towards Lake Ronkonkama! Thank you for a great documentary!
what a fabulous video!! Loved everything about it, the music, the history lesson, the cars, etc.. just fantastic!
beautiful road, love history, so great to find places like this still in existence :) even better that it's protected and still able to be used for cycling
The Locomobiles were great, so were the Stutz and a lot of lesser known high performance cars like the Appleson Jack rabbit. But by all accounts the bomb of all bombs during that era was the LOZIER.
When I was a child there were elderly people who as children, were taken to the Vanderbilt cup races. They could also tell you about how powerful prior 1925 the steam cars, especially brands like the White, were.
14:13 was true comic relief with that kid jogger almost losing balance running into everybody... funny stuff. Hey. Nice video, well edited, nicely written on a subject ALL highway people should know about. A fellow Long Islander with similar interest, you saved me a lot of time wanting to explore what you did for me . !!! Thanks for taking me along through video!
great history lesson. i use the springfield blvd. ramps at western terminus to ride bicycle on the parkway
wow very nice! ahh Lake Ronkonkoma and Long Island. I learned alot thanks for posting this
fantastic work! i am originally from riverhead and now live in los angeles. your video makes me long for home
I lived a block from Motor pkwy in the section between 107 and Stewart Av. in the 60s. There was a LIRR track there too under the hi tension wires. Part of the pavement was there and the mounds building up for the (gone) bridge over Stewart Av were still there. In Bethpage park, down the path from the swings was the "WonderWall" - 1 of 2 cement abuttments that once held a bridge over a farm road. Wonder if its still there?
I enjoyed your video which answers some of my questions about the mysterious abandoned roadways I found while riding my bicycle between Alley Pond and Cunningham Parkin the mid 1970s. I wonder if there is a bicycle group who tour the entire LIMP today? I wish there were more people like you!
Thank you. I f Forwarded your message to my historian Robert Miller who is very happy to read it. There is a Facebook group dedicated to Alley Park through which the motor Parkway passes. Perhaps you may get information there about tours.
Excellent Video...I have walked all of the queens section and a good portion of the remaining sections in Nassau County....Wish there was film of driving on the V.M.P...
There are many small sections of the Vanderbilt that still remain...that not too many know about....there is a section between lakeville Rd and NHP rd on the "north side" of the Northern State Pky ...it actually terminates at the NHP rd entrance ramp...west bound....and on the South side of the Northern State pky....there is about 30ft Of the VMP...between the NSP...and the NHP rd exit Ramp.....visible in the winter ..this was the connection to the VMP between NHP rd and Shelter Rock Rd....where there was once a bridge now gone....
Thanks for your reply! I do remember finding an old map online and seeing that that land was marked Botto. The Wonderwall was there in the 70s, I used to climb up and sit on the top with my GF. Fond memories!
If you look carefully in those woods you will find a set of concrete steps facing towards the lake itself, they are there... I know I lived on that lake from 1973-1987, I've checked recently and there they were... Pretty cool
Thank you Mr.Miller.
I lived in Nesconset in 2001 when I was working for Computer Associates in Islandia. My landlord mentioned this racetrack road when he was showing me around this area of Smithtown and Jamestown Long Island. Long Island was very fascinating to me.
I really enjoyed this! Thank you! Terrific job.
Fascinating story i love old roads likes this and Route 66.
very interesting peice of history here.
great !! love new york history !! thank you !!
This is a great history video on the LIMP. Thanks for posting!
Great job. Thank you very much! We use this in academic lecture of history of traffic engineering at the Bauhaus-University in Germany. Go ahead!
Thank you
Leave it to Newsday and Robert Miller. I grew up on a stretch of Motor Pkwy which was renamed Vanderbilt Pkwy. Between Deer Park Ave and Half Hollow Road. In the beginning of that film, you passed my best friend's house. My grandfather's brother in law owned a house out by the lake in the 1920's.
Thank you so much! A fascinating look at a piece of Americana.
We used to play on the remnants of this road when I lived off Bagatelle in the 70s!
Great job and well done video. Thank you
Good video, I hope that they made more
The Wonderwall (which was really the Botto Farmway Bridge so farmer Joe Botto could get to both sides of his farmland---yes, all that wooded area in Bethpage Park was once farmland!!) was torn down many years ago.
Is there a Part II? You should cover the Eisenhower Park section and Salisbury Park Dr and how the houses are so far away... Grandstand area in Levittown where there's a plaque...Deadman's Curve, most important part...near 135.. Bethpage State Park entrance road...Old Bethpage Road...you know..This one covered the western portion beautifully....Did I convince you? After that, I hear PBS calling.....
MUSICOM PRODUCTIONS why are the houses in Eisenhower Park and Salisbury park far apart. What do you mean by that ?
Great job! Thank you.
Da Brain you’re welcome
the Kissena Corridor is also the same route as this 187os rail road to Flushing
Great job. I really enjoyed this video..
Thank you for this marvelous information about Google Maps.
excellent job
awesome love this stuff
i live around these areas!!
very cool
nice cinematography also !
This video is so damn good!!! Thank you!! Amazing!
I lived in Bethpage for over 60yrs and my backyard was on the VMP. As you travel on Stewart ave north of Hemp Tpk right before yoy get to Crestline ave. You will see power lines. On the east side of Stewart ave you will see a mound of dirt that was a bridge over Stewart ave. They have since ripped up the parkway and put up condos (ugh) right inder the power lines!!!
Excellent!!
QUEENSDUDE PLEASE READ THIS!!!!!I saw from this and another video that the LI motor parkway goes right through Great Neck South HS (which I attended) and is the cross country running course which was and probably still is mandatory for all students of gym class to run. It’s also the main passage to the football and baseball field. Every student knows that path. This is the first time that I or any of my friends knew any of it’s important. I don’t think the school even knows what it is. IT SHOULD BE LANDMARKED. I am going to try to get in touch with the school to let them know what they have. Many of my former colleagues are interested in it. How great would it be if the school taught younger students of what they were running on.
there is a marker in front of the Dix Hills Library which you can see at the beginning of this video.
Great history
Thanks, Hank - glad you liked it🤓
This is amazing! Thank you for this video. Is there a way to arrange personal guided tours? Today with googlemaps you can get an amazing view of the locations you mention in this video.
fascinating!
The reason for reduced speed at WYANDANCH was the to many curves and hills.
you can glide right in on this historic parkway from Peck avenue or from 22oth street and Underhill or 77th ave /
I left LI after 50 years in Bethpage. GOT OUT IN 1995 JUST IN TIME. Live in Va. now for 80% less then it in LI and I'm in a gated community with 5 beaches a pga golf corase club house swimming pools, and all for $700 a year in dues, and $1002 dollors in taxes on my 1800 sq ft home
Why was it abandoned
Peck is the same route of the Central Rail Road ( 187os ) ...walk down Bell towards Union / under the overpass / make a Right
at the first street / thats peck / head north west /you're on the parkway
Googlemaps has mapped the entire LIMP!! It is amazing. Click here www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?msa=0&mid=zyC_WG3UKK0E.kKiiMCMBE5EY
it's a shame that Nassau county didn't AT ALL THINK of making a bicycle acess that would evetualy lead to NYC.
roadforrunner Nassau county is like 20 miles away from New York City. That's too far to bike
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se yes and not electric bikes though
live there, go on the road every day!!
it used to be a race track wish i could have seen a race
It's sort of like the "Route 66" of Long Island, other highways came into existence, and ran it out of business.
queens rules
google " frankiston " for more info
not million(s) maybe a couple hundred thousand.
he could get a good place in Central Islip...lol
Do you have millions of dollars? If so, welcome to Long Island!
Improvements? I think Not!
Observe the speed limits? Never!
I expect a mass exodus from LI as soon as the economy picks up and folks there can sell their houses. Go south to lower taxes as businesses have also gone.
Thank you Mr. Miller.