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  1.   Chriswo posted:
  06.21.2018 - 12:55 pm
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The first roadway purposely built for automobiles. Opened in 1908 closed
in 1938. Taken over by the state of New York in lieu of back taxes


  2.   RaceFanX posted:
  06.21.2018 - 2:15 pm
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Notably this was the first highway paved with concrete in the United
States and the first to use overpasses instead of intersections. Changes
in road construction however rendered it obsolete by the 1920s and use
fell off long before it shut down.

The track was built by William Kissam Vanderbilt II, the great-grandson
of New York Central Railroad founder "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt.
It was privately built in part so he could continue his famous
Vanderbilt Cup race, the earlier ones held been held on open roads
located on Long Island but accidents that resulted in a pair of
spectator deaths put an end to that. Racing here ended after two riding
mechanics were killed during crashes in 1910 leading the State of New
York to ban racing anywhere in the state outside race tracks.

Following the road's closure in 1938 much of it is now gone. In Nassau
County, where the racing took place, most of the land had been
repurposed but some portions are now incorporated into the Meadowbrook
State Parkway while others are used as right of way and access roads for
power lines.


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