Long Island Motor Parkway

Two surviving stretches of the Long Island Motor Parkway cross parts of Queens, running through Alley Pond Park and Cunningham Park. The parkway was conceived by William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. as a private toll road for automobiles after a deadly 1906 Vanderbilt Cup race. Construction began in 1908, and the road stayed in use until 1938, when newer parkways planned by Robert Moses had superseded it. The district contains seven contributing structures, two roadway sections and five reinforced concrete bridges, along with entrance and exit ramps, concrete bollards and right-of-way markers. One later bridge does not contribute. The Queens portion was built in stages: the eastern part by 1911, and the western extension in 1924-26. Later asphalt covers the original surface in many places, and the road became a bicycle path in 1938. It is considered the earliest paved, limited-access automobile parkway in America, with no grade crossings and a design aimed at pleasure driving.