page_title: Meadowbrook State Parkway
section_title: Extension to the Northern State Parkway
hierarchical_section_title: Meadowbrook State Parkway / History / Extension to the Northern State Parkway
caption_attribution_description: English: Meadowbrook State Parkway at the junction with the westbound Southern State Parkway.
context_page_description: The Meadowbrook State Parkway is a 12.52-mile parkway in Nassau County, New York, in the United States. Its southern terminus is at a full cloverleaf interchange with the Bay and Ocean parkways in Jones Beach State Park. The parkway heads north, crossing South Oyster Bay and intersecting Loop Parkway before crossing onto the mainland and connecting to the Southern State Parkway in North Merrick. It continues north to the village of Carle Place, where the Meadowbrook Parkway ends at exit 31A of the Northern State Parkway. The Meadowbrook Parkway is designated New York State Route 908E, an unsigned reference route. Most of the road is limited to non-commercial traffic, like most parkways in the state of New York; however, the portion south of Merrick Road is open to commercial traffic.
  The Meadowbrook State Parkway was first envisioned in 1924 as part of the Long Island State Park Commission and Robert Moses's system to connect several parks in Nassau and Suffolk counties. One park included in the proposal was Jones Beach State Park, which opened along with the Ocean Parkway in 1929.
context_section_description: Moses announced during the opening of the Bethpage State Parkway in November 1936 that the land for extending the Meadowbrook from the Southern State Parkway to the Northern State Parkway had been acquired by Nassau County and plans for the road were being designed by the State Division of Highways. Moses stated that the funds would be requested at the next session of the New York State Legislature, with a completion date of 1939 to coincide with the opening of the 1939 World's Fair in Flushing, Queens. This would make it plausible for motorists to go from Flushing to Jones Beach State Park directly. The new extension would also alleviate congestion along several north–south highways in Nassau County and provide quicker access to Jones Beach. However, construction on the $10 million (1956 USD) highway was delayed until December 1953.
  On October 13, 1956, Governor Averell Harriman officially opened the new extension of the Meadowbrook State Parkway with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11:30 a.m. near the Jerusalem Avenue overpass. Robert Moses, Hempstead Town Supervisor Edward Larkin, and Nassau County Executive Holly Patterson also attended the event. After the ceremony, a motorcade led by Moses traveled from the Northern State Parkway south to Roosevelt Field Shopping Center. At Roosevelt Field, the board chairman for Roosevelt Field, Inc., William Zeckendorf, honored Moses and Harriman with brand new tankards made of sterling silver. On July 5, 1962, the New York State Assembly announced the opening of bids on the widening of a 4.4-mile (7.1 km) section of the Meadowbrook between Merrick Road and the Southern State Parkway. Bids were to be accepted on the project in August, with a price tag of $3.851 million (1962 USD). The construction would widen the segment from four lanes to six and add a new center median. The widening was prompted by the frequency of accidents along the stretch, and efforts to develop the project were sped up as a result. Completion was set for 1964, and the reconstruction and repaving was finished on November 18, 1964.
caption: The Meadowbrook at the Southern State Parkway (exit M6W) in Barnum Woods
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