Southern State Parkway - History

History

Construction began in 1925 under the direction of Robert Moses, for the purpose of improving access to Jones Beach. The land used had originally been a conduit path for water, owned by Brooklyn. The first section of the parkway, eastward from the Queens–Nassau county line, opened in 1927. By 1932, the four-lane, undivided road extended to Suffolk County. Further extensions used more modern road construction principles. It reached its originally planned eastern terminus (Bay Shore Road) in 1949, and its current eastern terminus (Heckscher State Parkway) in 1962. Following the post-war housing boom on Long Island, the parkway was widened and straightened in numerous places to serve commuters traveling at speeds unanticipated when the road was first constructed.

Southern Parkway's first exit at Elmont is numbered 13. Cross Island Parkway once began the exit numbering scheme at the Whitestone Bridge as exit 1 and continued east on Southern State Parkway, before the construction of the Belt Parkway. The Cross Island Parkway's exit numbering scheme was changed to match the Belt Parkway's easterly number progression from the Belt's start at the Gowanus Expressway to the current Cross Island's terminus, now exit 36 at the Whitestone Bridge.

Originally constructed as a four-lane parkway, similar to Northern State Parkway, Southern Parkway was widened in the early 1950s to eight lanes from the city line to Hempstead Lake, and six lanes east of there. Since Southern Parkway was originally conceived as a "linear park" to connect Jones Beach and other state parks with the city, it was built in a meandering style appropriate for the low speeds and traffic density of the day. Stone and concrete arched overpasses were purposely constructed with low clearances for both aesthetic reasons and to ensure that commercial traffic wouldn't be able to use the parkway system.

Of interest is the original route of the Southern State at Hempstead Lake. Before the current fill that carries the present day parkway across the lake was built, traveling east before Eagle Avenue, the parkway veered sharply to the right, continued on what now is the park road in Hempstead Lake Park, crossed the dam at the southern end of Hempstead Lake, and turned sharply left on Peninsula Blvd. The divided section of Peninsula Blvd. next to Hempstead Lake Park is actually the old Southern State Parkway, which was abandoned for a number of years until Nassau County bought the roadway in the late 1940s.

Just east of exit 32, a service area used to operate beneath the underpass of County Route 47 (CR 47, named Great Neck Road) until 1985. Exit 32, which is for NY 110, also once included CR 47. Another service area was once located between exits 17 and 18. Lastly, there were once toll booths located on the parkway between exits 13 and 14 near its western terminus at the Cross Island Parkway until 1978, although many road maps covered the toll booths until the early-to-mid-1980s.

Some interchanges were redesigned. The original version of exit 32 contained a partial cloverleaf with NY 110 and connecting ramps to and from CR 47. The original version of exit 36 was also a partial cloverleaf. The old version of exit 37 was a partial cloverleaf that included a direct entrance to the former headquarters of the Long Island State Park Commission, and utilized eastbound re-entry to nearby exit 38, which had a north to east loop ramp, and eastbound connecting ramps to and from Sylvan Road, the frontage road along the eastbound lane of the parkway between exits 37 and 39. The interchange between the Southern, Sagtikos, and Heckscher state parkways (exit 41A), was originally intended to be another trumpet interchange, rather than the wye interchange it became.