bobndot wrote:
These parkways were built to thin out commercial traffic from NYC to eastern L.I., offering a less expensive to repair alternative to commercial roadways like the L.I. Expressway rt 495.
Actually, the parkways were built back in the Great Gatsby era, before the LI Expy. The LIE originally connected the Midtown Tunnel to the Clearview Expy from the Whitestone Bridge, but the only major commercial routes to LI were state rt 25 (Queens Blvd/Jericho Tpke) on the north shore and state rt 27 (Conduit Ave/Sunrise Hwy) on the south shore. There were no interstates going east on LI. The LI Expy (I-495) wasn't extended into Nassau until the early 50's and then completed to its terminus in Riverhead in 1972.
Robert Moses was the famed architect LI's parkway system and he left an interesting legacy in his design strategy.
(Read more about
Robert Moses low bridges here.)
