Bethpage State Parkway

Bethpage State Parkway marker
Bethpage State Parkway
Philip B. Healey Memorial Parkway
Map
Bethpage State Parkway highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by NYSDOT
Length2.49 mi[1] (4.01 km)
ExistedNovember 14, 1936[2]–present
RestrictionsNo commercial vehicles
Major junctions
South end Southern State Parkway in North Massapequa
Major intersections NY 24 in Farmingdale
North endPlainview Road in Bethpage
Location
CountryUnited States
StateNew York
CountiesNassau
Highway system

The Bethpage State Parkway (or simply the Bethpage Parkway) is a 2.49-mile (4.01 km) controlled-access parkway in Nassau County on Long Island, New York, in the United States. It begins at a trumpet interchange with the Southern State Parkway in North Massapequa and serves Boundary Avenue, NY 24, and Central Avenue before terminating at a traffic circle with Plainview Road and a local park road in Bethpage State Park. The parkway is designated as New York State Route 907E (NY 907E), an unsigned reference route. It is also ceremoniously designated as the Philip B. Healey Memorial Parkway for Assemblyman Philip B. Healey (1921–1996).

The Bethpage State Parkway was first proposed by Robert Moses and the Long Island State Park Commission in 1924 to help get people from New York City to parks in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Construction of the parkway began in 1934, and the highway opened on November 14, 1936, along with the Laurelton Parkway (part of the Belt Parkway system) in Queens. The new parkway cost $1.04 million (1936 USD) to construct. Moses proposed extending the Bethpage in both directions, south to Merrick Road via Massapequa State Park and north to the Northern State Parkway, where it would meet the unbuilt Caumsett State Parkway. Although neither proposal was constructed, bike paths leading away from both directions of the parkway have been constructed or are under construction. Several scaled-back proposals to extend the Bethpage north have been proposed, including an extension to NY 25A in Cold Spring Harbor and another to NY 135 (the Seaford–Oyster Bay Expressway) in Bethpage.

A bike path was constructed along the Bethpage State Parkway in the 1970s using the alignment once reserved for the southern extension and land along the east side of the current parkway. The Bethpage Bikeway, was extended from its original northern terminus to the Long Island Rail Road station in Syosset. The extension also uses part of the former Long Island Motor Parkway.

  1. ^ "2007 Traffic Data Report for New York State" (PDF). New York State Department of Transportation. July 25, 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 12, 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt-1936-11-14 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).