North Conduit/LIRR/Sunrise Overpasses - Sunrise Highway
Photo Gallery: Belt Pkwy
| The eastbound Belt Parkway is about to swerve sharply to the left as it trades in its Southern Parkway sector for the more elliptical northeasterly bound Laurelton Parkway sector. The South Conduit Avenue service road to the right is heading straight into the legendary and long running Sunrise Highway, which will extend virtually to the east end of Long Island's south fork. |
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The Belt Pkwy used to provide its Sunrise Highway
exit right here, just before the curve, but in a dubious safety related
move, that exit was pushed back some to just past 225th Street. One thing
that can't have much done to improve its inherent safety flaws is the sharp
curve coming up. Note the skid warning diamond sign. The single pole
overhead directional is unusual in that it is anchored on the center median
instead of off the side shoulder, but that is probably due to a lack of
space between the Belt and Conduit. Sunrise Highway, or Hwy as it is invariably spelled by cost and labor conscious sign makers, is notable for something quite apart from its length and breadth. First, it is the only road of major stature in the NYC Metropolitan area with a frivolous name unconnected to either a person, place or position. The Belt is, or at least was planned as, a literal Belt around Brooklyn and Queens, and comes damn close to fulfilling that ideal. Even the Grand Central, which is only mildly grand in spots and not very central in others, has some indication of where it fits in the grand scheme of things in its name, and can at worst be said to be named after the famous East Side railroad terminal. Sunrise, however, would seem to belong more to Nassau in the Bahamas than Nassau County. Its christened name isn't all that sets ole Sunrise apart, either. Of all the myriad boulevards, parkways and expressways snaking about New York City and its immediate surroundings, only one other major artery went by the designation "Highway" and that monstrosity from the West Side is a long gone memory, leaving Sunrise in all honesty as THEE only "Highway" in the midst of many highways not called such. |
| Remember when the artist formerly known as Prince renamed himself The Artist Formerly Known as Prince? Recall how many politicians running for office get homeowners to let them plant campaign ads into their lawns. It looks to me as though the sign formerly known as "One Way" is running for office as candidate for left turn signal of Rosedale. I'm not sure this barrage of safety warnings serves the proper purpose here. I fear many motorists taking this treacherous curve get so distracted gawking at the forest of yellow and black arrows that they don't give enough attention to where they're going. All the above were taken in motion, mid May 2003, by my partner in crime and life, Rosaura Murillo. |
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For lack of anything more recent yet to
display, I'll steal my own photo from 1992 to show the end result as the old
Southern section of the mighty Belt careens its way beneath a triple set of
heavy duty overpasses. In the foreground is the ramp going west into both
the Belt and its North Conduit Avenue slave from the ending Sunrise Highway.
It is immediately followed by the mostly unseen Long Island Railroad bridge
and the hard cornered elliptical arches carrying the nascent eastern stem of
North Conduit. Though on the wrong side of the tracks from its Southern
Parkway cousins, the North Conduit arches are the last of their series which
began all the way back at Cohancy Street in Ozone Park. From that point on
east, most of the overpasses, and all within the Laurelton section of the
Belt, are low slung, cornerless elliptical arches. Just for information sake, the leftmost of the two little old woodie lampposts atop the ramp overpass is now history, yet the rightmost one, probably an original dating from the great depression, remains stalwart. |