It was also one of America's first expressways. At least, it was one of the first roads to be designed so that drivers wouldn't have to stop for traffic lights, railroad crossings or many of the other things they'd have to contend with on conventional roadways.
Of course, when it was serving the functions I described, it didn't have all of the trees and other vegetation growing on its sides. That was allowed after the road became a bike/pedestrian path.
Yes, the path in the photo was once part of the Long Island Motor Parkway, which I mentioned in an earlier post. Now it's a segment of the planned Brooklyn-Queens Greenway.
I don't know whether storm damage has been cleared, or whether there wasn't much of it on the path. Running through the middle of Queens, it's several miles from either the north or south shores and, I would assume, out of the path of a storm surge.
Here the former Parkway takes a turn underneath the expressway--the Northern State Parkway--that rendered it obsolete for automotive use.
When it carried automobile traffic, the Parkway had several "toll lodges". (Don't you just love that term?) One of them now serves as a Parks Department facility in Cunningham Park:
Tosca was clearly enjoying the ride, as I was:
