Art's Long Island Motor Parkway Site
This page details the route of the Motor Parkway between Colonial Springs Road (shown in previous pages) and where it crossed Bagatelle Road further north in the Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills area. The map to the left shows the Motor Parkway in the center of the picture, running north and south and parallel to Conklin/Bagatelle Road. Access to the area is possible by climbing a hill (the right of way for several power lines) across from Sorrel Hill Court (shown in the pic below). The Parkway is at the top of the hill running left or right (south/north). The pictures on this page were taken in April, 2011 and show the area of the parkway indicated in blue.
The parkway section in red will be featured on the next page and will show where the parkway crossed Conklin/Bagatelle Road and veered north again heading up to today's Long Island Expressway. Exploring this (the west side) of Conklin/Bagatelle was not bad in April. But once the brush gets growing, access will probably be much more difficult. My travels on the east side were much harder (even in December) and I came away with multiple scrapes and nicks from thorn bushes and the like.
These links from historicaerials.com show the Motor Parkway (on the left) running parallel to Bagatelle/Conklin Road on the right. The Parkway is more evident in the 1954 photo but it is still noticeable in the 2004 photo. The power lines bisect both the Parkway and Bagatelle in both photos.
The picture below on the left shows the roadway going north, that is if you were to make a right when reaching the top of the hill. The pic on the right shows a wooden fence that is at the end of the path if you go left (traveling south). Behind this fence are remains of the Motor Parkway.
Motor Parkway Remains - South
Motor Parkway Remains - South
The pictures above and below were taken looking over the wooden fence shown above. The Parkway is clearly evident with a power substation on its left (actually on Bagatelle Road) and the slope of the parkway shown in the picture on the right. The pic below left shows the roadway blocked by another fence at the end of the path, which appears to border the property of a homeowner. And on the right is a close-up of the roadway.
Motor Parkway Remains - North
Motor Parkway Remains - North
These pictures show the Parkway going north from the point of where it bisected the power lines at the top of the hill. Numerous posts were found here, however the posts were of a different variety than shown in earlier pages. These posts had a metal spike or nail and did not have the twisted wire evident in other posts. The road shown in the background of one of the pictures is Bagatelle Road.
Other Assorted Finds
Other Assorted Finds
As with many of my other explorations of the Motor Parkway, numerous relics of the past were found in this section also. Of course, there always has to be at least one or two tires. However, this time, I also found a 1960s era .22 caliber rifle under the brush sitting in the middle of the Parkway roadway. Interesting stuff for your imagination!
