Ұзын Арал Мотор Парквеі: Америкадағы алғашқы автомобиль жолы

Former road in New York

The Long Island Motor Parkway, also known as the Vanderbilt Parkway, Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, or Motor Parkway, was a limited access parkway on Long Island, New York, in the United States. It was the first highway designed for automobile use only. The parkway was privately built by William Kissam Vanderbilt II with overpasses and bridges to remove most intersections. It officially opened on October 10, 1908. The road was originally planned to stretch for 70 mile (113 km) in and out of New York City as far as Riverhead, the county seat of Suffolk County and point of division for the north and south forks of Long Island. Only 45 mile (72 km) (from Queens in New York City to Lake Ronkonkoma) were constructed, at a cost of $6 million. (a year after the Bronx River Parkway). On October 10, 1908, a 10 mile (16 km) section opened as far as modern Bethpage. It hosted races in 1908 and on the full road in 1909 and 1910, but an accident in the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup, killing two riding mechanics with additional injuries, caused the New York Legislature to ban racing except on race tracks, ending its career as a racing road. By 1911, the road was extended to Lake Ronkonkoma. Its western stretch was also extended from Great Neck to what is now Fresh Meadows. The Long Island Motor Parkway was the first road designed exclusively for automobile use, the first concrete highway in the United States, and the first to use overpasses and bridges to eliminate intersections.

The parkway was used for four American Automobile Association Contest Board Champ Car races. The first one was held on October 30, 1909, and was won by Harry Grant. Once located at the junction of Clinton Road and Vanderbilt Court, it was moved in 1989 to 230 Seventh Street, now the headquarters of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce.

Roadway design advances of the 1920s rendered the road obsolete less than 20 years after construction. At the same time Robert Moses was planning the Northern State Parkway. In 1929, the owners and some Long Island officials proposed that New York State should buy the road and integrate it into the state parkway system, despite its narrow roadway (varying from 16 to 22 feet wide) and steep bridges not meeting new standards. Moses opposed the idea, stating that the Long Island Motor Parkway had been "a white elephant for the last twenty years" and that it would need significant reconstruction to integrate it into the state parkway system. The completion of the Northern State Parkway signaled the end for the road. In 1937, the portion of the Long Island Motor Parkway in Suffolk County was donated to Suffolk County. In July 1938, the remainder of the parkway's land was given to Nassau County and the Long Island State Parks Commission.