The Jackie Robinson Parkway (originally the Interboro Parkway) is a controlled-access parkway in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The western terminus of the parkway is at Jamaica Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. It runs through Highland Park, along the north side of Ridgewood Reservoir, and through Forest Park. The eastern terminus is at the Kew Gardens Interchange in Kew Gardens, Queens, where the Jackie Robinson Parkway meets the Grand Central Parkway and Interstate 678 (I-678, the Van Wyck Expressway). It is designated New York State Route 908B (NY 908B), an unsigned reference route.
The Interboro Parkway was first proposed in 1901 as part of an extension of Eastern Parkway. There were multiple attempts to construct the parkway between the 1900s and the 1920s, which failed due to a lack of funding and various disagreements over land acquisition. The parkway's route was finalized in 1930, and work on the central section through Mount Carmel and Cypress Hills cemeteries began in 1931. Construction on the rest of the parkway did not begin until 1933. Most of the parkway opened to traffic in July 1935, but the westernmost section was not completed until that September. Over the years, the Interboro Parkway gained a reputation for being dangerous because of its sharp turns and narrow lanes. The Interboro Parkway was renamed for Major League Baseball player Jackie Robinson in 1997.
Route description The Jackie Robinson Parkway starts at an intersection with Jamaica, Pennsylvania, and Bushwick avenues in the East New York neighborhood in Brooklyn. The westernmost four exits are located within the Cemetery Belt, near Brooklyn's border with Queens. The parkway runs east from Bushwick Avenue to Highland Park, where it curves around the north side of the Ridgewood Reservoir. Exit 1, Highland Boulevard, is a westbound exit and eastbound entrance. The parkway passes Mount Judah Cemetery before exit 2 at Vermont Place and Cypress Avenue, which lead to Highland Park and the Hungarian Cemetery. The parkway then continues through Mount Carmel Cemetery and Cypress Hills Cemetery, where there are retaining walls on both sides of the highway. Exit 3, Cypress Hills Street, leads to Cypress Hills Cemetery, where Jackie Robinson is buried.
At exit 4, Forest Park Drive, the parkway enters Forest Park in Queens. Exit 5 is Myrtle Avenue. At exit 6, Metropolitan Avenue, Union Turnpike straddles the parkway, but there is no access to or from Union Turnpike. The parkway and Union Turnpike then exit Forest Park and go under Queens Boulevard (NY 25) and above the New York City Subway's IND Queens Boulevard Line. Union Turnpike shares a diamond interchange with Queens Boulevard, but there is no access from the parkway. Exits 7 and 8, both at the Kew Gardens Interchange at the Jackie Robinson Parkway's eastern end, are both eastbound-only. Exit 7 goes to the Van Wyck Expressway (I-678) northbound (there is no access southbound), while exits 8E and 8W lead to the Grand Central Parkway's eastbound and westbound lanes, respectively. There were originally 23 or 26 bridges carrying the parkway below and above roads or railroad tracks.
Safety The parkway has several sharp curves throughout its route, particularly within the cemeteries. The curves exist because, at the time of the parkway's construction, planners wished to disturb as few graves as possible. As designed, the curves limited the design speed of the Interboro Parkway to . The curves are particularly hazardous; The New York Times wrote in 1997 that the parkway has been nicknamed "Suicide Row", "Slaughter Parkway" and "Death Alley" throughout the years.
A junction at the eastern end of the parkway was placed on the list of New York State's most dangerous roads in 2007, based on accident data from 2004 to 2006.
Planning Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who designed Prospect Park, had suggested the construction of Eastern Parkway and Ocean Parkway in 1866; the two parkways extended east and south of Prospect Park, respectively. Eastern Parkway was completed in the mid-1870s and originally terminated at Ralph Avenue. In the early 1890s, Brooklyn officials proposed extending the parkway northeast to near Cemetery of the Evergreens, Highland Park, and the Ridgewood Reservoir along Brooklyn and Queens' Cemetery Belt. Eastern Parkway itself was extended as far as Bushwick Avenue, and another road called Highland Boulevard continued eastward from Bushwick Avenue to Highland Park. Governor Levi P. Morton signed legislation to authorize the parkway's extension in 1896. The Eastern Parkway , along with Highland Boulevard, had been completed by 1897. What became Jackie Robinson Parkway originated from plans to extend Eastern Parkway even further.
Early plans
1890s and 1900s proposals After the consolidation of the City of Greater New York in 1898, there were proposals to extend Eastern Parkway further east to Forest Park in Queens. Brooklyn officials suggested a further extension as far east as Dry Harbor Road and then toward Hoffman Boulevard (now Queens Boulevard). An extension of Eastern Parkway following a similar route was suggested in 1899 by the Queens County Topographical Bureau, the extension running through Cypress Hills Cemetery and Forest Park to Dry Harbor Road. By 1901, Brooklyn surveyor Noyes F. Palmer had proposed extending Eastern Parkway another eastward into Forest Park.; The same year, state legislators proposed amending the Rural Cemetery Act to allow the construction of a road through the Cemetery Belt; this was the first bill to propose what would become the Interborough Parkway.; Though nearby property owners supported the parkway's extension, the cemeteries' owners opposed it. Opponents said the roadway would displace about 300 graves and that it would divide the cemeteries, and the Cypress Hills Cemetery Corporation later claimed that the bodies physically could not be removed. The bill passed both houses of the New York State Legislature, only to be vetoed by mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck.;
The legislation for a road through the Cemetery Belt was reintroduced in the state legislature in 1902 and in every year thereafter, but it failed to pass for most of the 1900s. Joseph Wagner, who had introduced the bill in the State Senate, proposed investigating the trustees of Cypress Hills Cemetery after the trustees opposed the legislation. When the bill was reintroduced in 1903, the Brooklyn Citizen wrote that the lands to be seized for the parkway were nearly empty; at the time, many local politicians, residents, and civic groups favored the bill.; An opposing bill, passed in 1904, prohibited the construction of public roads through any cemetery in New York state unless a supermajority of the cemetery's trustees and lot owners supported the project. This effectively banned any further extension of Eastern Parkway through the Cemetery Belt to Forest Park.;
Proponents of Eastern Parkway's extension continued to advocate their case. In 1906, a New York State Assembly member from Queens introduced a bill, which would allow a parkway to be built through Cypress Hills Cemetery with the New York City Board of Aldermen's consent,; but it failed by a two-vote margin. A similar bill was introduced in the State Senate in 1907; it received less opposition than the previous bills for the road had. The legislation for the Cemetery Belt road was finally passed in 1908,; permitting the construction of a road through the cemeteries. The bill also authorized the Board of Estimate to survey the route's right-of-way. Supporters of the project said that the parkway's construction would not entail disturbing any graves at Cypress Hills Cemetery, since the Eastern Parkway extension would traverse the cemetery on three viaducts. Queens's deputy commissioner of public works, Alfred Denton, proposed extending the road as far east as Hoffman Boulevard without traveling through the Cemetery Belt.; The city surveyed the route of the proposed Eastern Parkway extension, but work stopped due to a lack of money for construction.
1910s proposals
Plans to construct a road through the Cemetery Belt were revived in 1911. The New York Times wrote that the proposed road would "open up a most pleasant and easy way of getting to and from Queens by automobile by way of Brooklyn". At the time, very few streets connected southern Brooklyn and Queens. The New York City Board of Estimate failed to allocate the required funds for the extension, though city officials held informal meetings about the roadway. By 1913, the plans called for about of new roadway, and the parkway had been narrowed to . The road would have split from Highland Boulevard, run to the north of Ridgewood Reservoir, then continued eastward to Union Turnpike.; The city government discussed the plans with the operators of Cypress Hills and Mount Carmel cemeteries, from which it planned to acquire land. Though Cypress Hills Cemetery's trustees were willing to sell their land for . more than what the city was willing to pay, Mount Carmel Cemetery's trustees were unwilling to sell their land at all.; The city government agreed to acquire from the two cemeteries, and the cemeteries' presidents were ready to accept the plans for the parkway by late 1913. Cypress Hills Cemetery's trustees agreed to sell their land for .
By February 1914, the New York City Board of Estimate was ready to consider plans for the parkway. At the time, the road was variously called the Cemetery Road, Interborough Parkway, or Eastern Parkway Extension. The Queens government appointed a committee of three men to determine what was needed for construction to begin, and the Queens Chamber of Commerce endorsed the parkway's construction.; ; The Board of Estimate approved plans for the parkway that July;; it also prepared a report on the parkway, which took more than a year to complete.; After the parkway's route was approved, Queens's park department began growing 15,000 trees that were to be planted along the parkway, and the Queens Chamber of Commerce appointed a special committee to oversee the parkway's construction.; The parkway was to be constructed in three sections: the westernmost portion in Highland Park, the central portion next to Cypress Avenue and the Ridgewood Reservoir, and the eastern section through Cypress Hills and Mount Carmel cemeteries.
The Board of Estimate also asked its Committee on Assessment to determine who should pay for the parkway, but this process had not been finalized by 1917. By then, the parkway's cost was estimated at $500,000. One proposal called for the cost to be divided evenly between the New York City, Brooklyn, and Queens governments. Another proposal called for the city to pay half the cost and the Brooklyn and Queens governments to split the other half; the Committee of Assessments recommended using this cost breakdown. Work still had not started by 1919, when the Queens Chamber of Commerce and the Queens borough president asked the parkway's construction to be expedited. By then, the Cypress Hills Cemetery's trustees were selling burial plots right next to the path of the proposed parkway.
1920s plans
Revised proposal and approval