area in Fresh Meadows,
past the second terminus at Rocky Hill Road (Springfield Boulevard), and on
to the original western end at Black Stump Road (73rd Avenue) and Lakeville
Road just across the Queens/Nassau County line.
Fred (24 May 01) supplied us with a full set of high-resolution aerial photographs
from the Western Terminus to the Queens-Nassau line! The following ten
pictures are a bit dark, and some of the captioning is hard to make out, but I did not
want to procees the images in any way, to preserve as much detail as possible, and I
give keys to the captions.
[For terminology, refer to the list of Road
and Place Names on LIMP page 9.
Speaking of terminology, the term "Western Terminus" is a modern
fabrication (I believe).]
{Images resent by Fred Hadley 24 Feb/02 Mar 04.}
(24 Feb 04)
The first image (left, below) is of the western end of the Western Terminus area, from
the Kissena Corridor (KISS PK) on the left (W) to Cross Island Boulevard on
the upper right (NE), with North Hempstead Turnpike (NH TPK - NOT
Rte. 25A), running more-or-less horizontally across the field of view and Horace
Harding Boulevard (HHB) running from lower left (WSW) to middle right (ENE).
The Fresh Meadows Country Club (FMCC) is in the lower right (SE).
The Western Terminus is at the middle right, running diagonally SE from HHB.
The second image (right, below) is really a closer view of the first but centered around
the Western Terminus, but with the LIMP labelled and the KISSENA
CORridor labelled as such. These photos seem to bear out my contention
(and that of others) that the entry was at ground level; there was no HHB bridge.
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
The third image (left, below) has the terminus at the left center but shows the
southward bend of the LIMP and extends to Cross Island Boulevard [CIBl
(CIBL) - Francis Lewis Boulevard] and beyond to Hollis Court Boulevard (HCB),
running diagonally from upper center (NW) to lower right (SSE), with 73rd Avenue
(73 AV) in the lower right.
The fourth image (right, below) runs us a little further SE, labels 67th Avenue (67
AV) and shows the wild bend of the LIMP eastward just short of Union Turnpike.
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
The fifth image (left, below) moves us east a bit, labels Union Turnpike (UNION
TPK), shows that bend of the LIMP eastward just short of Union Turnpike, and
seems (to me) to clearly show the RoW of the old Stewart (RR) line (the SE
continuation of the Kissena Corridor) between Peck and Stewart/Underhill, diagonally
at upper right.
The sixth image (right, below) neatly confirms my supposition, naming Peck Avenue
(PECK AV), AND very clearly shows the toll
booth (TOLL) at Rocky Hill Road (ROCKY H RD, now Springfield
Boulevard).
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Those playing fields are in Alley Pond Park.
Because of the significance of this last picture, with the Toll Booth across the RoW just
E of the RHR overpass (as oposed to a Toll Lodge alongside), I enlarged it, showing
several interesting things. For one, the booth appears to be at an angle, not
perpendicular to the RoW. For another, there doesn't appear to be any E/B or
W/B off ramp, or E/B on ramp, and the booth appears to be hanging in mid-air at a
point where the LIMP is still elevated above grade (for the RHR overpass) and the
booth and the buildings to its right (E), also at an angle, look more like old trolley cars
or trailers abandoned there than formal LIMP structures!
(Detail from aerial photo courtesy of Fred Hadley, 24 Feb 04)
At least the booth is perpendicular to the W/B exit ramp, so that might explain its
orientation. Bear in mind, however, that this was all built AFTER extension from
the original terminus at or near Lakeville Road and the county line. Another
possibility is that it was all being demolished at that time; it was, after all, 1939 or
1940! I couldn't but wonder if that isn't just a trailer parked across the
RoW to block access but it's far too big to be that; besides, this was the first
(last) toll going E/B (W/B) and so should cross the entire RoW, as did
the one at Rosevale Avenue at Ronkonkoma.
(26 Feb 04)
The seventh image (left, below) packs a lot in a single image; it continues the playing
fields of Alley Pond Park (ALLEY PD PK) and picks up the (then-)new Grand
Cental Parkway (GCP), running from over Union Turnpike (UNION TPK)
and the LIMP in the lower left to the interchange with Cross Island Parkway
[CIP / (U/C) - then under construction] in the upper left, with the LIMP entry
at Winchester Boulevard (WINCH BL) fairly clearly shown at lower right and
the Creedmoor Hospital complex (CREED / MOOR) flanking the GCP at right
center.
The eighth image (right, below) is a bit complicated, with the GCP interchange with
CIP at left and with Union Turnpike at lower center and with Creedmoor (CREED /
MOOR) and the LIMP underpass in between the two. CBL seems
to refer to Commonwealth Boulevard (I'm checking), going under the LIMP. In
the middle right, running diagonally NE is Shiloh Avenue (SHILOH AV), which
still exists, running from 249th Street to Little Neck Parkway (LNP) between
Elkmont Avenue and Union Turpike; my initial reaction to the label "LNP" was
"Liquified Natural Petroleum" {!}, which made no sense,
and then "Let's Not Panic! Ah, the vagaries of
memory!
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Now to the ninth image (left, below); what is today's
Queens County Farm (QNS FM) Zoo
[<- 26 Mar 04]
is at the bottom left, to the left (W) of Little Neck Parkway (L NECK PKY), with
its LIMP overpass clearly shown, and then we come to the GLEN OAKS CLUB
in the upper right, Willie K's former residence, with its private LIMP access, and we bid
farewell to beautiful Union
Turnpike as it sinks slowly in the lower right.
The tenth and last image (right, below - a northern overlap of image 9, where the
white blob in the upper left is the portion of LNP instantly below Marcus Avenue)
takes us from the strangely-convoluted interchange of the GCP with Little Neck
Parkway (L NECK PKY) and Marcus Avenue, past the [HIGHEST /
P(oint). (in) QUEENS / 270' and the GLEN OAKS
GOLF CLUB, to the NASSAU C(oun)TY-NYC CITY / LINE,
where the GCP becomes the (then-)divided Northern State Parkway (NSP),
just west of Lakeville Road.
(Aerial photos courtesy of Fred Hadley, 23 May 01)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
The fields to the lower right (SE) of the LIMP on either side of the NYC-Nassau
boundary line (funny, I never noticed that broad black line on the ground!) are now
the grounds of the Long Island Jewish Hospital/Hillside Medical Center and the allied
health complex at 400-410-420 Lakeville Road. Hagstrom's doesn't name the
service road on the north side of GCP between LNP and the City-County line; Panel
member Tom Walsh advises it is Grand Central Parkway West and that it became
Lake Road in Nassau, before it was cut off at the county line; it bisected Lake Suprise,
the tiny lake instantly west of Lake Success, now much smaller than on the photo.
This whole area was part of Deepdale, WKV,Jr.'s estate.
{My sincerest thanks to Fred Hadley for re-sending these photos!}
On Fred's last view, I added Marcus Avenue and today's 61st and 77th Avenues and
today's sites of 400-420 Lakeville and NS-LIJ:
(03 Mar 04)
(Thumbnailed)
i.Park Aerial Photos
(Lakeville Road Bridge).
[I use the term "Lakeville Road Bridge" loosely here; I am actually referring to the
Motor Parkway bridge over the Northern State Parkway immediately west of Lakeville
Road in Lake Success; there was also a second bridge over the NSP directly west of
New Hyde Park Road (none of these photos show the latter bridge).]
17 Aug 01- The old Sperry Gyroscope plant in Lake Success between
Marcus Avenue and Union Turnpike and Lakeville Road and New
Hyde Park Road (W-to-E) has been split up and the 1,400,000 sq. ft. of buildings
at 1111 Marcus Avenue has been converted into rental manufacturing and office
space for telecommunications firms by i.Park Lake Success, Inc.*, of
Greenwich, Connecticut. The property was originally Sperry's WWII plant and
the headquarters of the United Nations from 1946 through 1951, then
Sperry-Rand, and, most recently, Lockheed-Martin. What makes this of
especial interest is that i.Park has several neat aerial views of their facility from the
Sperry days, when the LIMP either was open or recently closed, as well as newer
views, AND Sperry was directly across Lakeville Road from the Parkway!
i.Park was kind enough to allow me to photograph the pictures (although some are
behind glass and a bit difficult to get clearly).
Here they are; first the gem of the collection, an aerial view looking ESE over the
property with the LIMP visible running NNE from the lower right corner to just above
the lower left corner and showing the LIMP bridge over Northern State
Parkway in the lower left and Lakeville Road (running from the
white-surfaced bridge over NSP just above the lower left corner diagonally right and
up slightly to the right margin - SSW). From the condition of the construction
project across the LIMP RoW between the area now the northern parking lot of
400-410-420 Lakeville Road and Marcus Avenue (running vertically S-N along the
center left), it is evident that the picture post-dates the Easter Sunday, 1938, closing
of the LIMP (left). The large white-surfaced bridge is the original Lakeville Road
bridge(now replaced) over NSP (running diagonally across the lower left corner) and
the larger Y-shaped access is still there as the ramps for the E/B NSP to/from Marcus
Avenue; the smaller Y-shaped access is the ramps for the W/B NSP to/from Lakeville
Road (the S/B ramp has now been cloverleafed). New Hyde Park Road
barely shows in the upper left (NE) corner. The divided highway running along
the far right (S) side of Sperry and intersecting Lakeville Road just off the right margin
is Union Turnpike:
You can barely make out the old LIMP bridge over NSP in the lower left (I didn't want
to artificially lighten the photo for fear of losing the other details), so, for your
convenience, I also took an extreme close-up of the area of bridge itself, with the
Lakeville/NSP bridge directly above (E) it (right), reflections and all:
Next, a detail of another old SE view (badly focused through glass), apparently of the
same age as the preceding view, with the intersection of all the roads,
Lakeville/NSP/LIMP/Marcus at the bottom, slightly left of center. The LIMP runs
NE along the lower right margin and then bends sharply N to cross NSP at the lower
border, with Lakeville running diagonally from lower left to upper right, Marcus from
lower center to upper left, and NSP from lower center to far left:
The next image is one of the modern aerial photos, a high-angle one from the E
looking W, with North Shore Towers clearly visible beyond. The
beauty of this shot is that the LIMP is clearly visible just beyond the Long Island
Jewish Hospital/Hillside Medical Center complex in the left center and the newer
W/B NSP ramps for S/B Lakeside show at right (meaning that the LIMP bridge over
NSP is gone - the RoW bisects the cloverleaf loop). Lakeville Road, itself, arcs
across the bottom, just beyond the western Sperry parking lot, with Union Turnpike
barely showing in the lower left corner (note also that the Nassau/Queens county
boundary runs just west of Lakeville Road, right through the LIJ complex):
Lastly, we have two more high-angle shots, this one is the same as the preceding
one but with the with the development superimposed (yellow stripe), with Lakeville
Road marked and with more of Union Turnpike (unmarked) showing at lower left:
[Thumbnail image; click on the picture for a larger image.]
The NSP is also marked, as is the Long Island Expressway, in the upper right
corner. The buildings of the 400-410-420 Lakeville Road medical complex
appear uncolored just above and to the left of the word "Lakeville".
This next image is taken from slightly more of a true W direction but shows basically
the same features:
(Photos cropped from images courtesy of i.Park Lake Success, inc. - all rights reserved)
I found a full 8½" x 11" color photo on the back of an i.Park flyer; cropped and
annotated, it shows the LIMP RoW the dark treeline running diagonally across from
middle left to lower right:
[Thumbnail image; click on the picture for a larger image.]
I added callouts for the LIMP RoW (twice), North Shore Towers,
Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJ), the "Former Sperry Gyro
Property", 410 Lakeville Road, and Lakeville Road, itself, again
(where's it's "around the bend"), and Marcus Avenue, and an approximate
north directional arrow (N). The dotted line between Marcus Avenue
and the right margin, crossing Northern Stae Parkway, is a close approximation
(without obscuring detail) of the continuation of the LIMP RoW through the trees in
the cloverleaf and onto the Lakeville Jewish Center grounds at the far right.
[* - i.Park Lake Success, Inc, 485 Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, Connecticut
06830
203-661-0055 - FAX: 203-661-8071 - http://www.ipark2000.com
e-mail Lynne Ward, Executive Vice President: lward@ipark2000.com.]
Note in the above that the Long Island Jewish Hospital-cum Medical Center,
Schneider Children's Hospital, and the Hillside Medical Center-cum-Hospital are now
all part of the huge North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System.
NEWSDAY Article Errata
The article on the LIMP in the 14 Jun 2001 issue of NEWDAY (see
LIMP Bibliography, excellent though it be and grateful as we (the Panel) are,
contains a few errors of fact and opinion that should be noted:
Errata:
1. The Long Island Motor Parkway was NOT the Vanderbilt (Motor) Parkway -
EVER.
2. Arthur Pardington (not Paddington) - corrected 15 Jun 01 -
{correction sent in by Richard Hawkins of the Smithtown Public Library,
which holds the Pardington papars}.
3. Pardington was NOT the engineer; he was a VP of the corporation.
The Chief Engineer (1907-1924) was E. G. Williams.
4. Bob Cook is a runner, not a Panel Member nor Associate,
nor even on the LIMP e-list.
5. William K. Vanderbilt was "Jr.".
6. The LIMP originally started from Rocky Hill Road@
(today's Springfield Boulevard)
in Hollis Hill, not Flushing.
7. The writer missed architect John Russell Pope's General Manager's House at
1 Vanderbilt Court in Garden City (not to mention his Dormitory at Ronkonkoma,
although that latter architectural gem is in Suffolk County).
8. Groundbreaking was in "Bethpage (then called Central Park)"
{misplaced parenthesis ")"}.
9. Sam Berliner - "who, by 1999, also walked and biked - - " {"by", not "in"}
(actually, even "drove", if only on a short segment).
10. Bethpage State Parkway - "best-preserved stretches" - not so, not original;
the best original stretches are on the Great Neck South school grounds
and east of Willis Avenue. The most scenic/bucolic is at the Old Courthouse
Road bridge. The best unrestored old section is at Raymond Court
in Garden City.
11. The Garden City Toll Lodge was moved
(the photo caption mentions this but the text does not).
12. The Old Courthouse Road bridge is not "off Old Courthouse Road",
it is under it (the far northwestern end, over the LIMP).
13. Posts are reinforced concrete, not merely cement.
@ - Strictly speaking, the LIMP originated at the Queens-Nassau border, at Lakeville
Road, but was soon (1911) extended a short distance west to Rocky Hill Road
(today's Springfield Boulevard).
This just about does it for my coverage of the Long Island Motor Parkway, so far.
There is no map (yet) on Mike Natale's fascinating "
The Toll Road Map Master List" site; he refers you back to my site.
Because the Main Page overloaded, please visit the
many Continuation Pages noted on the LIMP Index
page.
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
of this series of Long Island Motor Parkway pages.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 2001,
2004
- All rights reserved.
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