Wantagh State Parkway

Wantagh State Parkway
Route information
Length:	13.33 mi[1] (21.45 km)
Existed:	1927 – present
Major junctions
South end:	Ocean Parkway in Jones Beach State Park
	Southern State Parkway in North Wantagh
North end:	Northern Parkway in Westbury
Location
Counties:	Nassau
Highway system
Numbered highways in New York Interstate • U.S. • N.Y. (former) • Reference • County

The Wantagh State Parkway is a 13-mile (21 km) state parkway on Long Island in New York, in the United States. It links the Ocean Parkway at Jones Beach State Park with the Northern State Parkway in Westbury. The parkway is located approximately 30 miles (48 km) east of Manhattan and 14 miles (23 km) east of the Nassau–Queens border. Construction began in 1927 on this, one of the earliest of the Long Island parkways, with the initial 5-mile (8 km) segment opening two years later connecting Merrick Road in Wantagh to newly opened Jones Beach State Park. It is inventoried by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) as New York State Route 908T (NY 908T), an unsigned reference route.

Route description

The parkway runs north–south providing four lanes of traffic north of exit W4 (Southern State Parkway) and six lanes south of exit W4. The parkway starts from the south at Jones Beach (where it meets the Ocean Parkway at a traffic circle), and runs through Wantagh, which is a populated suburb of New York City. As the parkway approaches Westbury, it cloverleafs with larger capacity roadways such as Merrick Road, Sunrise Highway (NY 27), the Southern State Parkway, Hempstead Turnpike (NY 24), and Old Country Road before ending at the Northern State Parkway.

The parkway, between exit W6 (Merrick Road) and its southern terminus at Ocean Parkway, is also unofficially known as the Jones Beach Causeway. The exact start of the Jones Beach Causeway is somewhat unclear however with some Hagstrom Nassau County Atlas editions showing it south of Seaman's Creek, and other editions showing the Causeway commencing at the never-built connection with NY 135 just south of exit W6.

From the southern terminus north to Wantagh, a Greenway, repaved in 2007, lies east of the Parkway, allowing bicyclers, skaters and walkers to travel about 3.5 miles (5.5 km) from Cedar Creek County Park to Jones Beach State Park.

History

The original section of the parkway, then known as the Jones Beach Causeway, opened on August 4, 1929, along with Jones Beach State Park, running from Merrick Road in Wantagh to Jones Beach Island.^[2] The parkway was extended northward to Southern State Parkway in July 1932 and to Northern State Parkway in December 1938.^[3][4] A formerly proposed extension to Interstate 495 (the Long Island Expressway) has been on the books since the late 1950s.^[5]

Upon completion of the southern extension of the Seaford – Oyster Bay Expressway (NY 135), Wantagh State Parkway was to be renamed Jones Beach Causeway between NY 135 and Ocean Parkway. Many have erroneously referred to Ocean Parkway as the Jones Beach Causeway.^{[citation needed]}

Exit list

The entire route is in Nassau County.

Location	Mile[1]	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Jones Beach State Park	0.00		Ocean Parkway	Traffic circle
			Bay Parkway west	To Jones Beach Marine Theater and West End Beach
		Toll booth (southbound only, only for parking fees for Jones Beach)
Wantagh	5.05	W6 E–W	Merrick Road	Former CR 27A; all trucks and buses must exit here northbound; trucks and buses may enter here southbound
	5.75	W5 E–W	NY 27 (Sunrise Highway) – New York, Montauk
North Wantagh	7.63	W4 E–W	Southern State Parkway – Great River, New York
Levittown	9.65	W3 E–W	NY 24 (Hempstead Turnpike) – Farmingdale, Hempstead
Westbury	12.12	W2 E–W	Old Country Road / Country Road – Plainview, Carle Place	Former CR 25
		W1	Brush Hollow Road	Former CR 63; southbound exit and entrance; northbound access via Northern Parkway eastbound
	13.33		Northern Parkway – Hauppauge	To Brush Hollow Road
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

New York Roads portal

1. ^ ^{a b} "2008 Traffic Data Report for New York State" (PDF). New York State Department of Transportation. June 16, 2009. p. 339. https://www.nysdot.gov/divisions/engineering/technical-services/hds-respository/NYSDOT_Traffic_Data_Report_2008.pdf. Retrieved January 22, 2010. 
2. ^ "Jones Beach Park to Open Tomorrow". The New York Times: p. 5. August 3, 1929. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C15FE3A5C177A93C1A91783D85F4D8285F9. Retrieved April 24, 2010. 
3. ^ "New Wantagh Spur Opened by Lehman; Crowd Sees Acting Governor Turn $1,500,000 Link to Jones Beach Over to Public". The New York Times: p. 2. July 17, 1932. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A10FB3E5513738DDDAE0994DF405B828FF1D3. Retrieved April 24, 2010. 
4. ^ "New Parkway Link Opened in Nassau; Smith Cuts Ribbon and With Moses Leads Way from Westbury to Jones Beach". The New York Times: p. 51. December 18, 1938. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10814F73D5A1B7289DDA10994DA415B888FF1D3. Retrieved April 24, 2010. 
5. ^ Anderson, Steve. "Wantagh State Parkway". NYCRoads. http://www.nycroads.com/roads/wantagh/. Retrieved March 18, 2010. 

• Old Metropolitan Suburban Bus Authority maps, Hagstroms maps, and other maps.

External links

• Wantagh Parkway (Greater New York Roads)