The 'Belt Parkway', also known as the 'Belt System' or 'Circumferential Parkway', is a series of
limited-access highways that form a complete circle around the
New York City boroughs of
Brooklyn and
Queens on
Long Island. The system is composed of four separate parkways; however, three of the four are signed as the "Belt Parkway". The three parkways that make up the signed "Belt Parkway" are
25.29 miles (40.7 km) long.
Route description
The 'Shore Parkway', 'Southern Parkway', 'Laurelton Parkway' and
Cross Island Parkway are collectively known as the "Belt System".
[2] The four components of the Belt System are designated as 'New York State Reference Routes 907C, 907D, 907B, and 907A', respectively, all unsigned
reference routes. Excluding the Cross Island Parkway, the other three segments are now known collectively as the official "Belt Parkway". It is designated an east-west route, and its exit numbering system begins, in standard fashion, at the western terminus of the Shore Parkway, the westernmost parkway in the system. The numbering increases as the parkway proceeds eastward, and continues onto the Cross Island at the eastern terminus of the Belt Parkway. The north-south parkway retains the numbering scheme to its northern terminus.
Shore Parkway
The Shore Parkway begins at the
Gowanus Expressway near the east end of the
Verrazano Narrows Bridge and proceeds westward through
Brooklyn. The Shore, the part of the system most people think of when they mention "Belt Parkway," makes a large arc to the south, passing under the Narrows bridge and entering the
Coney Island area. The parkway turns east, roughly following the former path of
Coney Island Creek before skipping across former islands in
Jamaica Bay to reach the Southern Parkway.
Southern Parkway
The Southern Parkway, distinct from the
Southern State Parkway in
Nassau and
Suffolk counties, is located entirely within the median of Conduit Boulevard between Cross Bay Boulevard and Brookville Boulevard. Just west of Brookville, the Southern exits the median, turning to the northeast and becoming the Laurelton Parkway.
Laurelton Parkway
The Laurelton Parkway is a short connector between the Southern Parkway and the Cross Island Parkway. At exit 25A (
Southern State Parkway), the Laurelton, as well as the Belt Parkway, becomes the
Cross Island Parkway.
Cross Island Parkway
Main articles: Cross Island Parkway
The Cross Island Parkway continues north from the interchange with the Southern State Parkway near the border of
Nassau County, then west to the
Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, where it terminates at the
Whitestone Expressway.
History
The Belt Parkway was proposed by builder and highway advocate
Robert Moses in
1930 to provide modern highway access to Manhattan and to connect to, and use similar design principles to,
parkways already constructed on
Long Island and
Westchester County, New York. Construction began in
1934. The full loop was completed when the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (also known as the "BQE") was finished in
1960.
The Belt System
Though some signage bears the name "Belt Parkway," the original plan never called for a highway of that name, rather a system of different named parkways called the "Belt System." The ''Belt System'' is made up of a series of interconnecting highways, none of which are actually named the ''Belt Parkway''. Originally, the highways were the
Gowanus Parkway from the
Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to the Shore Parkway; the entirety of the Shore, Southern, Laurelton, and Cross Island Parkways; the
Whitestone Parkway from the Cross Island to the
Grand Central Parkway; and the Grand Central from the Whitestone to the
Triborough Bridge.
All of the original parkways, except the Gowanus, were built on strips of green and treed rights-of-way in a more pleasant surrounding than most highways of their time. The Gowanus Parkway was built as an elevated structure over Third and Hamilton Avenues in order to avoid the active docks and industrial areas in that part of Brooklyn.
Conversion and completion
Like most
parkways in New York State, the parkways comprising the Belt System were closed to commercial traffic, including any vehicle with a non-passenger registration and all commercial trucking of any size. Originally even station wagons, which had "suburban" registrations, were excluded but they were later allowed, along with passenger-registered SUVs and vans.
The system was not completed as a parkway, and some portions of the original system were converted to
expressways, which allows commercial traffic to use them. These expressway portions included the
Gowanus Expressway, replacing Gowanus Parkway as a connector between
Manhattan and the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to
Staten Island and
New Jersey (now signed as part of
Interstate 278);
Whitestone Expressway, which converted Whitestone Parkway into a truck route to connect the
Van Wyck Expressway to the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge (now signed as part of
Interstate 678); and the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, built as an expressway to connect the Gowanus Parkway/Expressway to the Triborough Bridge and Grand Central Parkway to complete the system (now signed as part of
Interstate 278).
Exit list
References
1. Traffic Data Report - NY 427 to NY 908F
2. NYSDOT List of Parkways
External links
★
Belt Parkway Historic Overview at Steve Anderson's ''nycroads.com''
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