I grew up in Syosset, and went sledding on the hills of dirt at the end of my block, before the LIE went in. I've always preferred the Northern State Parkway, with its more relaxing feel. Too bad the service stations are no longer in operation. Their design complemented the roadway. I'm so glad the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway was never completed. When I see the trace of where it would have run, I see how many neighborhoods would have been irrevocably destroyed, For years I traveled along Convent Road, Berry Hill Road, Split Rock Road, and many others along its proposed route.
I grew up in Mineola and Garden City in the 50s and 60s. I remember Mitchell Field when it was still in operation. I remember the shuttles going to Roosevelt Raceway on the Commercial Avenue tracks. I also remember when the LIRR bridge over Mineola Blvd had a huge smear of a black stain from coal powered steam engines that sat underneath the bridge when the trains were in the station. This has been a journey down the back roads of my memory. Thank you for putting the series together.
Regarding the US Naval Station at Lido Beach: The complex was used to house members of the US Navy's Armed Guard. Along the beach itself, anti-aircraft weapons were installed for practice shooting at targets towed by airplanes. I'm certain an excavation may produce a large number of spent shells (perhaps a bio-hazard)! In 1945, Naval Station Lido was made into a separation center, the last stop before Discharge from the Navy. All the Best to Long Islanders past and present!
Former Massapequan/history lover here! I just wish to elaborate... I recall when the Southern State Toll booths were taken down in 1975. There was a huge sign that said in effect: Toll Free Southern State Parkway thanks to (Newly Elected) Governor Hugh Carey. The sign did not mention that his brother received the exclusive contract for Mobil stations along the parkway!
Thanks for sharing this fascinating history. I grew up in Mineola and still recall some freight service running on the Hempstead and Central branches. Also attended a Boy Scout/Cub Scout jamboree in Mitchell Field, 1960.
The editor of the video got the order wrong for Edgewood and the USGS map of Pilgrim State Hospital. The narrator was speaking about Edgewood Preserve, but then at 4:45 up pops the map of the Pilgrim State Hospital site, a site the narrator spoke about 45 seconds earlier. 😮 Oops.
I think the author of the script forgot what he was writing, or his/her mind slipped, because what does "hidden in plain sight" mean? If something is hidden, then it isn't by definition of the word in plain sight. It would be visible if in plain sight.
🤓Omg… thank you for such a great piece of history, that’s why Roosevelt Field is like that…..mind blown! I’m a 70’s baby from Mineola., I didn’t know. Thank you again! 👍🏼
I’m old enough to remember thosetoll plazas, lol. But I’m also old enough to remember when there is a service area with a gas station in the middle of the southern state Parkway just east of exit 32 for route 110, you can still see there’s a third underpass in the middle of the road, which is where the ramp to the gas station was.
So cool in how much history Long Island has, i live in glen cove and have recently hated how far we are from everything and how it’s a one way in and out basically that takes so long, wish there was a way to get us to other places faster
I have fond memories of Mitchel Field. When I was a kid in 1969, a friend at the time brought 2 go-carts. We rode them fom Juniper ave in Mineola to the Mitchell. We had all of the run ways to our selves back then. Thanks, Bob for the fun. . Would like to see an episode on Mitchell.
Good job. There is always more. There was also a psychiatric center in Central Islip with it's own power plant and rail spur. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Islip_Psychiatric_Center . It looks like you are sticking to Nassau and Suffolk county's. It you also include Queens there is Creedmore that also had it's own spur line. For airports in Queens there was also Flushing airport in College Point, just south of 20th Ave. When I worked in the area 20 years ago the hangers were still standing, barely. You also have to remember that Nassau county used to be part of Queens until 1899. Keep the good stuff coming.
I worked at AIL (Airborne Instruments Laboratories) in 1979. The airport was gone by then. But AIL had plenty of aviation history. There were two large hangers and a large field behind the building's for offices and manufacturing. It was fun working there. I was an Engineering student at the time. The stuff that they were working on was neat. Among other things, they did the landing guidance for the lunar module and in 1979 were actively involved in Electronic Counter Measures for military aircraft. There was a bar nearby called the Runway bar or Runway Inn or something like that. The bar outlasted the airfield. But it long gone now.
I remember the day they demolished the old Edgewood building in Deer Park! It was on Commack Road, and to this day, I have never seen a creepier building in my life!
I still remember the big E-2C Hawkeyes and S-2T’s with the big radar domes that would fly over my house in Syosset on their way to Bethpage or Calverton. My mother was the project engineer on both those programs at Grumman.
I grew up in Syosset right near the northern path of the remains what would’ve been 135. I have vivid memories of when I was little when they still had all the heavy equipment staged at the terminus at Jericho Tpke as if they would start working any minute. Of course that never happened.
I was born and raised in Syosset, and even went to Nassau CC. I moved off Long Island 24 years ago. This video is making me homesick. Very cool history that even I didn’t know! Well done.
I am almost 81 years and lived 34 yearson Long Island, and I have a lot of nice memories, even though I'm not there right now. Jones Beach was especially a favorite with my family when we live there. Thank you for a nice video😊
Excellent presentation, I only have one difference of opinion as to the object shown at 9:31, as a railroad buff I believe it is not in fact a rail car but a construction trailer which was abandoned, coincidentally on the train tracks. The various angles showing how it was constructed and particularly the rubber tired trailer wheels and the lack of any railroad style trucks with steel wheels along with a lack of couplers, and being of far too lightweight construction clearly demonstrate that this is a road vehicle, not a railcar.
Belmont State Park was built by the WPA that is why the trees in the middle of the road. Also the park was built in the cold winter My Father worked on it.
You forgot.that Pilgrim State was an Military Hospital during W W2. And the first Drive Inn Movie in Green Acre of Valley Stream.And.the many small airports that covered Long Is!and.There were Two in Levittown alone.
There was an airport in Massapequa where Sunrise mall used to be. Grand Ave which is close to the mall is really wide because it was a runway at one point….
Yes! One of our favorite vacations is to bring our camper our to the Campground in Greenport for a couple of days. -many a morning you start your day by heading down Moore's lane to the 7-11 on Rt. 25 and getting ice-coffee! That being done, you head out and find something relaxing to do for the rest of the day! -maybe you go to a winery, maybe ferry to Shelter Island, maybe go out to Orient or maybe even go back to the campground and bob around the pool a while!
I grew up in Garden City South (Nassau Blvd. was our home station). When I was a little kid, I remember the tracks south to West Hempstead and north to Mineola being in place through the windows of my Parents' car when we went shopping in Hempstead, West Hempstead or out to Roosevelt field. They disappeared right around the same time: I estimate 1969, although how reliable a one-time seven year old is as a witness is up to you! I remember the spur curving south from the Central Extension too, but that was late 1970s into the 1980s. LIRR #35 was at the end of this spur for several years after she was removed from Eisenhower Park. I was once there with several teenage friends and we talked to the volunteers working on her. Not very long afterwards, she started to look kind of abandoned and I took note of her whenever I drove past. Today I live in East Northport: let me tell you about the Northport Spur sometime! (My son and I ride bikes on the rail-trail there!)
Whether or not Amityville's alleged haunted house is so, is still steeped in murder. I couldn't live there in that house. Even if you paid me. I still like the original movie.
Two Items That Are Missed... 1) Ferguson's Castle, Huntington Harbor, Daughter of Oscar Mayer Wieners, Sea Plane Would Land ín Harbor and Taxi via Water to a Hanger Beneath the Castle.....2) Regarding Manhasset Harbor....Pan American "World Wings" STEWARDESSES, "Would Offen Fly" Thee Old CLIPPER SHIPS From Idlewild Airport Into Manhasset Harbor.
Correction, Wantagh Oyster Bay Expressway extended south from Hempstead Tpk to just south of Jerusalem Ave opened in 1965, also Southern State Parkway was extended westbound from Central Ave into Queens (Laurelton Parkway terminating at Merrick Blvd in 1935