Vanderbilt Creates America's First Highway

When you think of the Vanderbilt name – old money, the Gold Coast and America's elite may come to mind.  After all, the Vanderbilts have like a hundred things named after them, a university, a medical center, mansions and wings of museums.   If you grew up in Suffolk County, one of your school field trips undoubtedly landed you at the Vanderbilt Planetarium in Northport. However, in addition to being heir to a rail road fortune, William K. Vanderbilt Jr. orchestrated the first paved road in America – the Long Island Motor Parkway.  It is also sometimes referred to as the Vanderbilt Parkway.        

Young Vanderbilt was mesmerized by the then new mode of transportation – the automobile.  His conception for the private toll road void of intersections arose from his love of racing cars.  He started the Vanderbilt Cup races in 1904 – about 18 drivers competed for the $2,000 cup which was said to be designed by the famed New York store, Tiffany & Co.   He held his race on over 30 miles of road in Nassau and one year an accident claimed the lives of two spectators and injured many more. 

Following the tragedy, Vanderbilt rallied a racing dream team, using his influence to gather captains of industry and Long Island's ultra elite to finance and design his landscaped toll road that went from Queens to Lake Ronkonkoma.  There are various conflicting data stating the road was 43 miles, 45 miles and 48 miles.  However, 45 miles seems to be the number most often used in books and articles about the road.

In 1908 there was a groundbreaking ceremony in Bethpage.  A. R. Pardington was the Vice President of the Long Motor Parkway and General Manager of the Vanderbilt Cup races. 

"Think of the time it will save the busy man – speed limited are left behind, the Great White Way is before him, with throttle open, we can go go go and keep on going," said Pardington.  The original plans had the road slated to go to Riverhead but the road ended in Lake Ronkonkoma.

There was great optimism surrounding this new concept of a paved road – many thought it would be a boom for development, making trips from the city to Long Island much easier.  The road was initially 16 feet and was widened to 22 feet – commercial vehicles were prohibited.  There were 65 bridges creating a road void of grade crossing, thus allowing speeds of 60 mph or faster.

According to NYC Roads, a popular website about city roads, it was used for racing and after Prohibition for bootlegging.  The road earned the name Rumrunner's Road because it was bootlegger nirvana – they were able to outrun the police.

Long Island Motor Parkway stopped collecting tolls years before it closed in 1938.  A few of the toll lodges still exist.  Small two-bedroom homes – the one in Garden City was moved from Clinton Road to 7th Street and restored in 1989.  It now houses the Garden City Chamber of Commerce.

The western most part of the road is now a scenic and popular bicycle path in Queens.  Ann Farnun Curtis wrote a book about Lake Ronkonkoma called "The Three Waves."  The first wave was the railroad – which brought many wealthy people from the city to summer on the lake.  The second wave was created after the automobile.   The Long Island Motor Parkway was instrumental in making Lake Ronkonkoma a summer resort town in the 1920's and 30's. 

When famed builder Robert Moses created his free Northern State Parkway in 1929, Vanderbilt lowered his tolls considerably.  The original toll was two dollars which was a vast amount of money back in the day.  According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the average weekly wages for a semi-skilled male production worker (factory worker), was $29 in 1920.

Despite lowering the tolls, Motor Parkway became obsolete and the Vanderbilt's sold it off to pay back taxes. Although somewhat short-lived as far as roads are concerned, Vanderbilt's love of speed and racing led to one of the first highway's in our nation.  Pardington's comments about a paved road where you can go go go out East may be laughable for any Long Island resident who has been stuck in beach or Hampton's traffic but Vanderbilt was undoubtedly a pioneer.