Video: “The Long Island Motor Parkway, the first highway in the world”

Filmmaker Michael Spiteri created this 2-minute pilot film last year entitled: "The Long Island Motor Parkway, the first highway in the world. As posted on VanderbiltCupRaces.com , Spiteri described his film concept:

"The first highway in the world took the elite of New York City to their mansions on Long Island, zipping past the traffic on the poorly maintained local streets. A Great Gatsby era story led by William K. Vanderbilt and his associates from the Rockefeller, Guggenheim and Astor families, these men built what we could only today imagine, a private highway, free from traffic and police.

This is a promotional video for a possible documentary for PBS/WLIW.

The documentary encompasses the start of auto racing in the US and Henry Ford testing his first cars, in addition to being a popular prohibition route for circumventing the local police and smuggle alcohol in to NYC.

In the end, the highway died a slow, painful death as newer building technology came about and the great depression took hold. The playboy millionaires were no longer able to support their private highway and eventually they were forced to turn it over to the State of New York for payment of back taxes."

Enjoy,

Howard Kroplick