Vanderbilt Cup Races

Over the course of the thirty year history from 1908 to 1938, the Motor Parkway became a conduit for the development of Long Island and heralded the transformation of the Island from a rural area to a suburb.

At the peak of its popularity from 1924 to 1930, more than 150,000 cars annually traveled on the Parkway. However, even when business was booming, the Parkway was a money losing proposition. In an effort to keep it open, Vanderbilt made numerous loans to the Long Island Motor Parkway Corporation. Vanderbilt and his associates never got made a profit on their estimated $5 million investment. In 1929, a group of Nassau County millionaires encouraged the state to purchase the Parkway rather than build the Northern State Parkway through their properties.   Noting its narrow 22-foot width and sharp curves, Robert Moses, then head of the Long Island Park Commission, described the Long Island Motor Parkway as a white elephant that will “be given to Nassau and Suffolk counties for nothing some day.”

The crushing impact of the Depression coupled with the ever-expanding free New York State parkway system effectively sealed the late of the narrow, winding Parkway. On June 16, 1937, Moses’ prediction came true when Vanderbilt offered the Parkway to the public. It officially closed on Easter Sunday on April 17, 1938. After it closed, the 44-mile right of way was turned over to Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties in return for the cancellation of $80,000 back taxes.

Seventy-Five years later, the three counties have vastly different uses of the Motor Parkway right-of-way.