Wednesday, June 18, 2025
First in a series on the Southern State Parkway.
One bright Saturday afternoon in June 2020, a group of protesters stood near the Robert Moses statue in Babylon, calling for its removal.
Their rallying cry: The “Master Builder” was not worthy of such recognition. He was, instead, a racist who, among other things, designed the Southern State Parkway to keep buses carrying low-income families from traveling from New York City to Long Island — and its beaches.
The group had collected more than 13,000 signatures in support of its cause.
Wayne Horsley, a former regional director of Long Island’s state parks and a local historian, countered at the time that the often aired claims against Moses, “a son of the village,” have never been proven.
What has been proven, however, is the impact of the visionary work of Moses, who was the architect behind the construction of the Southern State when he served as the chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission and president of the New York State Parks Council.
The 100th anniversary of the construction of the parkway this year offers an opportunity to reflect on both its history and its future.
Often referred to simply as “the parkway,” the Southern State was part of a major roadway expansion undertaken by New York state that also included the Northern State and Sagtikos parkways. Today, it is a 25.3-mile long roadway that stretches from the Queens-Nassau border to Heckscher State Park in East Islip.
Construction on the Southern State began in 1925, under Moses’s leadership. It was designed to improve access to Jones Beach. The land was originally a water conduit owned by the borough of Brooklyn.
It comprises the western portion of unsigned New York State Route 908M, with the Heckscher State Parkway occupying the eastern section. Its first section opened to the public in 1927; there were additions in 1949, and its current roadway was completed in 1962, when it reached Heckscher Parkway.
Following the post-war housing boom on Long Island, the parkway was widened and straightened in a number of places to serve commuters traveling at speeds unanticipated when the road was first constructed.
Initially, the Southern State had a toll between exits 13 and 14, at the Cross Island Parkway, until 1978 when the state eliminated it and removed the toll plaza.
Prior to World War II, the State Department of Transportation estimated that fewer than 15,000 cars traveled on the parkway each day. During the postwar population boom on Long Island, the volume expanded to 190,000 cars per day, with most using it to commute between home and work.
Mary Cascone, historian of the Town of Babylon, notes that the Long Island parkway system was initially designed to bring automobiles to state parks.
“By limiting access to passenger cars, the parkways were supposedly intended for recreational driving,” Cascone wrote in her research on Moses and the Southern State. “Drivers and passengers could enjoy the beauty of the tree-lined roadway, free of billboards and trucks, as they made the journey to the countryside.”
That intention is visually confirmed in photos taken of the road when it opened, showing one or two cars on a lushly landscaped parkway, portraying what was then known as the “leisurely Sunday drive.” With its verdant countryside free of commercial traffic, the parkway appealed to the more affluent city residents who owned cars, whether an intentional outcome of the design or not.
An aspect of the roadway’s design that is often cited as evidence to support the claim that it was designed to deny access to the masses is its bridges, which have unusually low clearances.
“It appears to be accurate that the state parks and beaches reached by the Nassau and Suffolk County parkways were deliberately designed to accommodate motorists rather than people who used public transportation,” Cascone said.
“The inference that many people make, however, is that Black people used public transportation — which they surely did — along with all the other people who could not afford to, or simply chose not to, own a car. This ignores the fact, however, that Black people did own automobiles, and drove them on the parkways and to the beaches.”
For some, however, the low parkway bridges are an unfortunate, lingering reminder of classism and inequity in the guise of public works, Cascone concluded.
Thomas J. Campanella, a professor at Cornell University, a historian and a writer on city planning and the urban environment, sees the potential evidence of discrimination in the lower height of the Southern State bridges compared with those on other parkways Moses designed.
“The low-bridge story is a micro-biography of Moses, a tragic hero who built for the ages, but for a narrowly construed public,” Campanella wrote. “It also shows how something as inert as a stone-faced bridge can be alive with politics and meaning.”
He also noted that Moses’s attitude appeared contradictory, as he approved the construction of a swimming pool and play center in Harlem — now the Jackie Robinson Park — which is considered one of the best public works projects of the New Deal era anywhere in the United States, and established other recreational sites in communities of color across New York state.
In a press release dated July 23, 1934, Moses argued for the construction of more recreational facilities for all New Yorkers, noting, “It is no exaggeration to say that the health, happiness, efficiency and orderliness of many of the city’s residents, especially in the summer months, are tremendously affected by the presence or absence of adequate swimming and bathing facilities.”
Next installment: Accident statistics and causes.
