In 1906, when automobiling was a sport requiring goggles and a linen duster, William Kissam Vanderbilt II and some rich cronies who wanted to motor to their Long Island homes at 40 m.p.h. without scaring horses and infuriating the public, joined in buying a 50-mi. strip of land down Long Island from Flushing to Lake Ronkonkoma. On it they built a narrow, wriggling ribbon of concrete and macadam with bridges over every crossroad. Total cost: $3,500,000. The Long Island Motor Parkway was thus the first modern type highway. In 1908, 1909 &...
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