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On the Queens Page:

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On the Suffolk Page:

On this LIMP Open Items Page:

The LIMP Tour Page:

This page covers additional information and photographs of this interesting old highway; see also my Automotive, Chrysler, Dudgeon (really!), Mercedes, and SS and JAGUAR car pages and other related pages.

A Motor Parkway Panel has been convened to keep the LIMP alive in minds and museums.

RoW = Right-of-Way.

16 Apr 99 - An employee of LIPA (the local power utility, successor to LILCO), based out of Hicksville, wrote "of an area that may be related to the" Central Railroad of Long Island.  "On the LIPA RoW east of Jerusalem Avenue in Levittown, there is an area of concrete that looks out of place".  "It's about 50 yds. into the RoW, on the south side".  "Visibly, it's about 20 ft. long x 8 ft. wide; it may be larger than that.  It sure sounded to me like the site of a LIMP facility, possibly the Bethpage toll lodge; was I ever wrong!  The "pad" in question is between Meridian Road and Mallard Road, which my trusty Hagstrom's places about a third of a mile north of Hempstead Turnpike.  I was there 18 Apr 99 (with a film camera), convinced that it is the location of the Bethpage Toll Lodge, but Panelist Vince Fitzgerald tells me it is definitely the Central RoW; "the LIMP in this general area was 1/8 mile north.  The streets forming the southern boundary of the LIMP are Orchid and Polaris."  Here's a map of the area courtesy of Vince Fitzgerald, showing the two RsoW:

(Click on the thumbnail to download a 257,834Kb image)

The LIPA guy further advised (Sep 99) that the pad measures "exactly 90 ft. long by 20ft. wide, and is 75 yds. into the ROW east of Jerusalem Ave."  Panelist Tom Walsh (16 Oct 99) vaguely recollected that the pad may be "the site of the reviewing stand from the pre-LIMP Vanderbilt Cup races".

Another correspondent asked (23 Sep 99) why Willie the K. didn't attend the groundbreaking ceremony?  On further reflection (research), same answered it himself; Mr. Vanderbilt's father-in-law was near death at that point and in fact died in the next day or two; Willie may have been with his wife at the bed side, but the correspondent didn't have any confirmation and further thought Mr. V. was conspicuous by his absence (he was - 2nd V. P. Arthur Pardington read Willie's speech).

That same new correspondent also wanted "Dead Man's Curve" moved to a museum from its location SW of Bethpage State Park!  Now THAT would be a neat trick!  However, he put me in mind of taking my trusty new digital SLR on out there, and to the Old Bethpage Village bridge and the New Highway/Maxess/Ruland/Duryea Road area, with its bridge site, as well.  On my trip to BSP on 24 Sep 99, I couldn't find the Curve and on my return on 25 Mar 00 missed it at first (see DEAD MAN'S CURVE REDIVIVUS).

I'm rapidly running out of room on all the existing LIMP pages on this site so here's as good a place as any (with room) to put a Jun 2002 photo of the Maxess Road bridge abutments, which you can compare to my 1999 shots, followed by current (Sep 2004) photos from Panel Friend Pat Masterson showing just how magnificently Oxford Management Services cleaned up the then-rapidly-deteriorating site:

You can see that the first shot above matches the previous one almost exactly, both looking due E; then the area as Oxford cleaned it up, then the E curb looking NNW with a marker in the distance, the marker more evidently, and finally up close.

Uh, oh!  Something's amiss at Maxess!  I was told that the embankments are gone and that the abutments are exposed and threatened; Rob Gerard sent along this photo (compare it to the preceeding ones):   (11 May 05)

(May 2005 photo by R. Gerard - all rights reserved)

This doesn't look as bad as I'd heard.  Let's hope that this only represents an attempt to enlarge the parking facility, not to destroy the abutments!  We'll look into this and advise.

Rob also found my take on where the RoW crossed Pinelawn Road to be off; much more on this to follow but, in brief, there is an elevated roadway in the brush on the traffic island that separates the N/B and S/B sections of Pinelawn Road; that is the old Pinelawn Road.  Following that elevated road S, you can see where the LIMP went under Pinelawn Road; there is a large pile of concrete just before the sump which was most likely from Pinelawn Road because there is no layer of blacktop.  Here's Rob's photo of that pile of concrete:   (11 May 05)

(May 2005 photo by R. Gerard - all rights reserved)

I'll have to get out there and pinpoint all this and Rob's take on the LIMP/Maxess/Duryea/Ruland area for you.

On (22 Aug 01), a LIMP Listee wanted to know, "Did the LIMP bridge over the NSP (just west of Lakeville Road) also extend over Marcus Avenue?"  I replied,"No, the bridge clearly only spanned the then-four lane NSP.  Marcus doesn't show clearly on my aerials.  It doesn't even appear to extend into the LIMP RoW.  But on an old Hagstrom's, it shows the abandoned RoW as going OVER Marcus and a post-closure aerial shows Marcus extending across both the RoW and Lakeville at what appears to be grade.  I now, thanks to Panel Associate Howard Kroplick, have aerial photos clearly showing the LIMP bridge over Marcus - they will appear one of these days.   (24 Sep 04)

On or about 23 Mar 2002, LIMP enthusiast Dr. David Eisenberg was in both the woods north of the LIPA Row west of Bagatelle and in the woods north of Threepence Drive {what follows is edited slightly}.  East of Bagatelle, he found the Parkway remnant running along a ridge.  In both areas, he found approximately 8 inch diameter pipes sticking out from the west sides of the ridge and was curious if those were drainage pipes from the Parkway.  He does remember another LIMP site (probably Michael Abbey's) talking about the repaving of the Queens LIMP bikebath and how old 90 year old drainage grates were removed at that time.  We should go to the Wheatley Heights area to see if we can find any grates near those pipes atop the parkway.  In some areas, there were too many leaves and brambles to do so {tell me about it, Doc!}.  David asks if anyone knows of any areas of remanent parkway in Nassau {or others in Suffolk - SB,III} with evidence of its old drainage system?

East of Bagatelle, north of Threepence wooded area, Dr. E. had difficulty finding the RoW in the brambles and leaves {I can attest to this problem - and have!}.  He came upon a ridge with trees and thorns and twigs that he presumed was just a hill (one of many in aptly named Half Hollow HILLS) but saw a pipe coming out of the west side about three feet down from the top of the hillock or ridge or whatever but didn't think anything of it until he traveled south on Bagatelle to the west-of-Bagatelle LIPA RoW and followed the plateau that he knew to be the LIMP right of way northward into the woods.  At some point, he noticed a similar pipe coming out of the west side of the plateau/ridge that he was walking on and had the realization that this might be the same type of pipe from that ridge northeast of there.  He went back to the first ridge east of Bagatelle a few weeks later, found the pipe, climbed up a less bramble-filled area atop the ridge, and found pavement.  Thus he presumed the pipe probably drained the Parkway.

I'll have to go in there with Dr. E. or on my own with the ol' digital and record this.  Now, does anyone know for sure about these pipes and has anyone run across drain grates, manhole covers, or any other such artifacts of the original LIMP?

The assembled visitors:

Photos by and courtesy of H. Kroplick - all rights reserved)

Mayor Ehrbar (left), with Trustee Mary Ann McDermott (right), and yours truly addressing the multitude,
with Ray Cross on the left and a backdrop of cars, and me squinting fiercely:

That's former mayor Roger Fay's 1926 Chrysler 66 at the left and my old colleague
Rudy Rosenberg's stately 1938 Rolls and Bob Valentine's maroon 1926 Chevy in the background
(the gentleman in the boater and patriotic stripes is Rudy).

Here's the object of the whole thing and Bob Valentine and yours truly flanking it:

After the ceremony, the cars were paraded down the old RoW and back:

You can see the 3' concrete extensions on either side
of the asphalt overlay in the middle distance.

Lastly, here's former Mayor Roger Fay in his 1926 Chrysler 66
and Ruth Valentine holding LIMP car tag #459:

Photos by and courtesy of H. Kroplick - all rights reserved)

The metal car tags were an early version of the Easy-Pass and this one is the property of Bob and Ruth Valentine (shown holding it above) and Ruth was kind enough to send me this detail shot of their plate (bought at, appropriately enough, a tag sale:

(photo courtesy of R. Valentine - all rights reserved)

Someone else brought black-on-white 1934 car tag #175, attributed (through initials and a date scratched on the back) to Mrs. Whitney (photos, anyone?).

What Williston Park did here is truly laudable; let it be the tip of an iceberg!

I was asked about an alleged Toll Lodge just south of the entrance to North Shore- LIJ Medical Center on Lakeville Road and said I doubted that it was LIMP-related, that is probably a gatehouse, but for the old Hillside Hospital; I've been there several times now, and I don't even see it as any kind of gatehouse at all.  It's at the SE corner of the dead end of 76th Avenue, on the grounds of the small Episcopal church on Lakeville Road, a short block east of Hewlett Avenue.  The actual Great Neck Toll Lodge still exists as the rear of the mini-mansion just north of the Great Neck South schools driveway; it's all here at Great Neck Toll Lodge.  The church is nearly a ½-mile south of the LIMP RoW (and the Vanderbilt mansion was a ¼-mile north of that).  This house is nowhere near the LIMP and it's also 'way far east of the original Hillside Hospital (my guess that it's just an ordinary 19-teens/1920s mock-Tudor home is all wrong):   (22 Aug 03, etc.)

22 Aug 03 photos by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images]

(Photo courtesy David Taylor Archives, North Shore-LIJ Health System - all rights reserved)
{Thanks to Dr. J. Binder for making the image available to us.}
[Thumbnail image; click on the picture for a larger image]

There are several questions about this move - why? - when?  Per Howard Kroplick, this house was indeed designed by Willie K.'s favored LIMP architect, John Russell Pope.

Howard furnished two more images for us; one of the gatehouse in situ at Willie K's estate and one of the move nearly over, with the church at the right of the photo - I thumbnailed both but the second is a bit of a surprise since the thumbnail is severely cropped and the full image reveals a very different landscape than now:

(Lower image courtesy of the LIJ Hospital Archives)
{Thanks to H. Kroplick for making the images available to us.}
[Thumbnailed images; click on the pictures for larger images]

29 Dec 03 photos by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images]

[More on this gatehouse to follow.]

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of this series of Long Island Motor Parkway pages.

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© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 - All rights reserved.