In a couple of weeks I will be traveling to Brooklyn, New York to visit my mom and sister, as well as some other people, to kick off my 30th year on this planet. That being said, it is a good time to look at some NY highway history and what a way to do so then to talk about President Franklin D. Roosevelt's role in one of the major parkways in southeast New York state.
By the early 1930's, the United States was stuck in a deep Depression. Roosevelt attempted to alleviate the stronghold of this crisis by installing a staggering 100 Federal programs. This became known as the New Deal. Two examples were the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civil Conservation Corps (CCC). The main goal of these projects was to provide Americans with jobs by having them work on several projects that would help ameoriliate the infrastructure of the nation. For example, "from 1933 to 1938 thousands of unemployed male youths from virtually every state were put to work as laborers on road gangs. As a result of this monumental effort, the Chicago-to-Los Angeles highway was reported as 'continuously paved' in 1938. In the final analysis, Route 66 affected more Americans on federal work relief than people who used it during the famous exodus to California."
What helped prompt FDR to create such policies was his involvement with the Taconic Parkway Commission prior to his election in 1932. The Taconic Parkway was one of the first four parkways (others include Bronx River, Merritt, Hutchinson River) to be built in the New York City area. Beginning in 1931, the Taconic was originally to be slated as the "Bronx River [Parkway] Extension" until 1941 when the Taconic Parkway Commission took over the road's operation. "Combined with the already completed section of the Bronx River Parkway, this section of the Taconic was to provide a scenic, rapid route from New York City to the Bear Mountain Bridge and points north. "
At this point, the "Extension" split up. One part headed northwest (later became the Bear Mountain State Parkway) while the right fork headed north to the "Eastern State Parkway", now the Taconic State Parkway. However, FDR and Robert Moses, designer of the parkway system, rammed heads.
By 1924, there were 4 proposed state parks for the highway. "The parkway and four proposed state parks tied to the parkway were to provide the backbone for the state park system in the eastern Hudson Valley. However, the northward progress of the Taconic State Parkway ran into roadblocks. Desiring to make the Catskill and Adirondack regions more accessible to New Yorkers, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the new chairman of the Taconic State Park Commission under Governor Al Smith, sought to extend the Bronx River Parkway through the Hudson Valley all the way north to Albany. At the same time, Robert Moses was seeking to procure funds for his Long Island park and arterial system. Moses had a distinct advantage: he chaired the State Parks Council, which allocated funds to parks and parkway projects throughout the state. Moses slashed Roosevelt's budget requests, and even said that the Taconic Parkway should not extend north to Albany, but end in Westchester County."
According to Robert A. Caro's The Power Broker:
"Roosevelt had at least one bitter face-to-face confrontation with Moses, the details of which can only be imagined. Then Roosevelt tried to go over Moses' head. In December 1926, he wrote Smith asking the Governor to restore the funds he had requested. "It is an absurd and humiliating position to be put in, to be informed that we could have no money because through lack of an Executive we have not been able to properly expend the money we had and then to be informed that we cannot have an Executive because we have not been given more money," he wrote.
But Smith was taking Moses' word as to what was happening in park matters. He asked Moses about the Taconic situation and Moses wrote Smith: "I suggest you write him (Roosevelt) a letter along the line attached." The "attached said that of course the parkway would go through - it did not say through to where - but that there was so much competition for the limited money available that it must be concentrated on those projects which were moving ahead fastest, and the Taconic Parkway was not one of those�
A year later, the State Parks Council eliminated from the Taconic Commission's request all funds except those needed for bare maintenance of existing parks. "Moses simply used us," Roosevelt said. "The enormous appropriations for Long Island, while perhaps necessary, prove merely that we have been completely useful to other people."
Despite the acromonious relationship between Roosevelt and Moses, work began in 1927 on a 20.7 mile stretch in Westchester County. By 1932, the parkway was finished in two segments, "the 'Bronx Parkway Extension' from the Kensico Dam Plaza to the Bear Mountain Parkway, and the four-mile-long spur north to the Westchester-Putnam border, known as the "state parkway," which linked the Westchester parkway system to the parkway being planned by the new Taconic State Park Commission."
In November 1963, despite all the confrontations, the 105.3 mile-long Taconic Parkway was finally completed. Mr. Roosevelt was not around to see the Parkway come to its fruition, but he would have concurred with Mr. Moses assessment.
"Rolling through the natural scenic charm of one of New York State's most beautiful country regions, the (Taconic State) Parkway is a composite of safety, beauty and utility, representing every known facility for safe and modern parkway construction yet devised� While safety engineering has been the starting point for designing and constructing the parkway, at the same time the Taconic State Park Commission has sought to provide a parkway that takes advantage of all the natural beauty New York's country area provides."
As in all parkways in New York, the goal of the Taconic was to promote its aesthetics: state parks and natural scenery. If one takes a drive off US 9A towards Poughkeepsie, New York, for example, one will be amazed at the amounts of trees and luscious scenery.
Sources:
http://www.route66ca.org/66_study/history/hist_66.html
http://www.nycroads.com/roads/taconic
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