Over the years, some people have asked us how we came by the name “The Motor Pool.” The obvious implication is that is has something to do with an army Motor Pool, where military vehicles are repaired, put into storage or are simply awaiting assignment to different military units. In part, that’s true, but it also pays deference to The Motor Parkway, a segment of which runs right behind our house in Oakland Gardens, Queens, New York. While vehicular traffic hasn’t run along the highway in several decades, there is a lovely bike path that is used by joggers, runners, bicyclists and other enthusiasts year round.

The Long Island Motor Parkway (LIMP), also known as the Vanderbilt Parkway and Motor Parkway, was a parkway on Long Island, New York, in the United States. It was the first roadway designed for automobile use only. The road was privately built by William Kissam Vanderbilt II with overpasses and bridges to remove intersections. It opened in 1908 as a toll road and closed in 1938 when it was taken over by the state of New York in lieu of back taxes. Parts of the parkway survive today in sections of other roadways and as a bicycle trail in Queens.

William Kissam Vanderbilt II, the great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, was an auto-racing enthusiast and created the Vanderbilt Cup, the first major road racing competition, in 1904. He ran the races on local roads in Nassau County during the first decade of the 20th century, but the deaths of two spectators and injury to many others showed the need to eliminate racing on residential streets. Vanderbilt responded by establishing a company to build a graded, banked and grade-separated highway suitable for racing that was also free of the horse manure dust often churned up by motor cars. The resulting Long Island Motor Parkway, with its banked turns, guard rails, reinforced concrete roadbed, and controlled access, was the first limited-access roadway in the world.