WHAT is now called Shore Parkway was constructed as the Circumferential Parkway in 1940 but the official name was changed, soon enough, to Shore Parkway to the delight of sign and map makers everywhere. Along with the Laurelton and Cross Island Parkways, it makes up the Belt system of parkways partially ringing Brooklyn and Queens. In Brooklyn and Queens, from Owls Head Park to where the Laurelton Parkway meets Sunrise Highway in Laurelton, Queens near the Nassau line, its service roads are invariably signed by the Department of Transportation as Shore Parkway, and its few residential addresses are also called Shore Parkway. Google Maps calls the actual parkway Belt Parkway and its service roads Shore Parkway.
…Except on the south side of Cropsey Avenue, at the Shore Parkway westbound entrance ramp, where we find this Belt Parkway sign. Since I know of no others (I’d have to walk all of the service roads in Brooklyn and Queens) I’d have to assume this is a mistake on the part of the DOT sign shop.
It’s not like there aren’t other signage errors around town. This bus stop sign refers to a “Bowery Av” and precisely no one has ever called the Bowery “Bowery Avenue.”
A few years ago, I found a “Long Island Expressway” sign in Sunnyside. In that part of town, I-495 is called the Queens Midtown Expressway, and from Queens Boulevard to the city line, the Horace Harding Expressway. Only when it crosses that undefended border into Nassau is it known as the “Long Island Expressway.”
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6/4/26
7 comments
You didn’t say anything about Leif Eric’s son Drive. Or the POW/ MIA Highway sign which is on the wrong place.
On the JFK Expressway leaving the airport, all the signs refer to “Belt Parkway East”, “Belt Parkway West”. Along the service roads near there as well
Strictly speaking, I’m talking about the local street signs on the service roads.
In Last Exit To Brooklyn its called Belt Pkwy
“Last Exit To Brooklyn” Gene Pitney 1965
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUeO0tT9HEo
I have observed this parkway for 70-plus years as a passenger and driver. The multitude of names associated with it over the years is quite long. Some names are still in use today, others are long forgotten. I’ll start with the Belt Parkway, which today usually refers to the stretch between 69th St./Gowanus Expressway in Bay Ridge and the Southern State/Belt interchange where Nassau and Queens meet. North of that location up to the Whitestone Bridge, it’s the Cross Island Parkway. Radio traffic reports normally use those two designations.
But there are many more designations that some locals still use. Shore Parkway was once the moniker for the entire parkway in Brooklyn, but is now used only for the service roads, including the short Queens portion west of Cross Bay Blvd. The service roads west of Cross Bay Blvd., up to the Sunrise Highway exit in Rosedale, are North (or South) Conduit Avenue. The short stretch between Sunrise Highway and the Southern State/Belt interchange was originally called the Laurelton Parkway, also now subsumed into the Belt. Laurelton persists on the southbound service road; northbound service road is now signed as Brookville Boulevard. The parkway’s main roadway in this stretch is a unique seven-lane layout, with four lanes in the south (west) direction.
North of the Southern State/Belt interchange, Cross Island Parkway is both the main road name and the discontinuous service roads’ names. After being interrupted at Hillside Avenue, the service road resumes west of the Throgs Neck Bridge and continues roughly to the Whitestone Bridge. Invariably, the radio traffic reports recommend using the Clearview Expressway between the Throgs Neck Bridge and the Grand Central Parkway due to inevitable traffic congestion on the Cross Island between the bridge and the Grand Central.
Finally, let’s go back to the west end of the Belt. Today’s Gowanus Expressway was originally built as a Robert Moses parkway in 1941, and did not allow commercial vehicles. The 1964 rebuilding for the Verrazzano Bridge saw that stretch converted for all traffic. I remember perusing pre-1964 maps of the area that showed the Gowanus Parkway, with (Belt Parkway) in parentheses. And I remember driving over the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1970s and seeing directional signs on the Brooklyn-bound side that said “Belt Parkway – Fulton St.”
The only constant is the traffic on the Belt/Cross Island combination has not abated over the years. I did get a bit verbose, but I’ve driven this road ever since I got my license in 1965. It seemed easy then, but now it’s more challenging.
And, Conduit Blvd up to Shore Parkway, and the section of Shore Parkway up to the Laurelton Parkway/Sunrise Hwy junction, was once called Sunrise Hwy.