Wantagh State Parkway is a parkway located in Nassau County, Long Island, New York. It is an approximately 30 miles east of Manhattan. The parkway from the south at Jones Beach State Park that links the Ocean Parkway at a traffic circle and runs through Wantagh, which is a populated suburb of New York City. As Wantagh State Parkway approaches Westbury, it cloverleafs with huge capacity roadways such as Merrick Road, Sunrise Highway, the Southern State Parkway, Hempstead Turnpike, and Old County Road, before ending at the Northern State Parkway.
Wantagh State Parkway Eastbound entrance from Southern State Parkway, North Bellmore
Wantagh State Parkway Northbound at Hempstead Turnpike, Levittown
Wantagh State Parkway Northbound from Jerusalem Avenue
Wantagh State Parkway Northbound from Old Country Road, Hicksville
The Wantagh State Parkway is considered one of the earliest of the Long Island parkways which was built on 1927. The initial five-mile segment of parkway from EXIT W6 (Merrick Road) in Wantagh south to Jones Beach State Park was completed in 1929. Upon completion of the southern extension of the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway, Wantagh State Parkway was to be renamed Jones Beach Causeway between NY 135 and Ocean Parkway. Many people have erroneously referred to Ocean Parkway as the Jones Beach Causeway. The initial section of the Wantagh State Parkway was built on hydraulic fill across the islands of Great South Bay and fenlands donated to the state by the Town of Hempstead. The forty-foot-wide roadway carried two northbound and two southbound lanes, with no separating barrier.
In 1932, the parkway was extended north from Merrick Road to the Southern State Parkway. Then, the Wantagh State Parkway was extended north to the Northern State Parkway in Westbury in 1938. The Northern State-Wantagh State Parkway is the final link in a forty-three mile express road from the Triborough Bridge to Jones Beach. There were improvements happened in the parkway between 1955 and 1967, which was widened to three lanes in each direction between Jones Beach and the Southern State Parkway. To comply with the safety standards implemented on the other parkways, the two opposing roadways were now separated by a ten-foot-wide grassed median.
Wantagh State Parkway Northbound from Sunrise Highway, Wantagh
Wantagh State Parkway Southbound from Old Country Road, Hicksville
Wantagh State Parkway Southbound from Southern State Parkway, North Bellmore
Wantagh State Parkway Southbound from Sunrise Highway, Wantagh
According to the NYSDOT, the Wantagh State Parkway handles approximately 65,000 vehicles per day between the Northern State and Southern State parkways, approximately 25,000 vehicles per day south to EXIT W6 (Merrick Road), and approximately 15,000 vehicles per day south of Merrick Road. Most of the time, the Wantagh Parkway is a good alternative to the congested Meadowbrook Parkway. The Wantagh State Parkway Bridge is among of the historic bridges in the United States that runs over Wantagh State Parkway on NY 24 in East Meadow. The New York State Department of Transportation had requested a temporary difference from the drawbridge operation regulations to test an alternate drawbridge operation schedule to help better balance the needs between vehicular land traffic and marine vessel traffic. The parkway allows bicycling, skating or walking about 4 miles from Cedar Creek County Park on Merrick Road into the Jones Beach State Park and Ocean Parkway Areas.
