Bethpage State Parkway

 

This was the headline for the November 19, 1936 Farmingdale Post. Bethpage State Parkway cost $1.1 million to construct. The Bethpage State Parkway was constructed with a 22-foot-wide undivided pavement, providing one northbound and one southbound lane. When the Bethpage State Parkway opened in 1936, LISPC commissioner Robert Moses was considering extensions of the parkway south to Merrick Road in Massapequa, and north to the Northern State Parkway in Plainview. Beginning in the early 1960s, Moses purchased rights-of-way for the northern extension. Residents in the wealthy enclaves of Lloyd Harbor and Cold Spring Harbor thwarted plans for both the "active use" state park and the parkway. In1977, Caumsett State Park opened as a "passive use" facility for hiking, biking and horseback riding.

In 1990, the Long Island Regional Planning Board resurrected plans for extending the Bethpage State Parkway to NY 25A in Cold Spring Harbor as part of its 20-year highway improvement program. The plan did not cite potential sources for funding the extension. By 1994, this proposal appeared to be dead.  A decade later, the NYSDOT proposed a short extension of the Bethpage State Parkway north to the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway as part of the "LITP 2000" long-range plan. The proposed extension, which would be constructed through the southwest corner of Bethpage State Park, awaits environmental study and public review.

In 1977, maintenance of the Bethpage State Parkway was transferred from the Long Island State Park Commission to the New York State Department of Transportation although ownership remained under the jurisdiction of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. To accommodate the increase in traffic volume and speed, and to address the accident history, the NYSDOT began to modify the parkway in accordance with federal and state traffic safety guidelines. Among the improvements wider 12-foot travel lanes, 10-foot-wide shoulders, improved reflective signs and sand-filled impact attenuators.

In the late 1970s, there was a rehabilitation project. A pedestrian and cycling trail running parallel along the east side of the parkway was part of this project. Unlike the original trail, which ran along the west side of the parkway and only goes as far north as the Route 24 / Hempstead Turnpike exit, the new trail runs along the entire length of the parkway.

According to the NYSDOT, the Bethpage State Parkway handles approximately 15,000 vehicles per day.

Source:

“Bethpage State Parkway.” NYCRoads, www.nycroads.com/roads/bethpage/. Accessed 22 Nov. 2025