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Worlds First Parkway. Prospectus of Lo

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:175.00 USD Estimated At:350.00 - 450.00 USD
Worlds First Parkway. Prospectus of Lo
World's First Parkway. Prospectus of Long Island Motor Parkway Inc., widely believed to be the world's first parkway exclusively for automobile use. 1906. 8 -1/2 x 1 1, 4 printed leaves, stapled at head, black on cream. Listing William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. as Pres., with Directors, Incorporators, et al., including August Belmont, John Jacob Astor, S.T. Davis (of Locomobile and Stanley Steamer prominence), E.R. Thomas (builder of the Thomas Flyer), and a very young Henry Ford. Describing path of proposed parkway, to begin at New York City line, extending as far as Peconic Bay. "...The...Parkway will afford manufacturers...the opportunity they so greatly need of trying out their products under true road conditions, where there exist no speed regulations. Buyers of cars at the present time find it difficult to so test cars...Long Island, convenient as it is to New York City, is daily becoming more and more a place of year-round residence by owners of motor cars...." An avid "automobilist," Vanderbilt was said to have been singularly responsible for New York State's enactment of speed limits, after his 1902 escapades in his "Red Devil" Mercedes. In 1904, he set a 90 m.p.h. record at Ormond Beach; that same year the first Vanderbilt Cup Race was held. In the 1906 race, two spectators were killed, and he changed the word "Highway" to "Parkway" in his promotion for the road proposed here. By late 1908, the first stretch, some ten miles, was completed. During Prohibition, the Parkway's police-free lanes allowed delivery of liquor to speakeasies on Long Island. Two original parallel mailing folds, trivial toning, else very fine. Very rare.