Freeways stopped being PRETTY (And that's a shame!)

I first drove on the Merritt Parkway in 2019 and had no idea about all this until I drove on this. My friend and I were like "Woah, this is the fanciest highway ever". We joked that there were probably cops hiding that would shine a flashlight into your car to make sure you were well-dressed enough to use the road lol.

The Post Road story is surprisingly relevant. Everyone complains about how when highways get to downtowns there's too much traffic. Maybe it's because there shouldn't be a highway there lol.

I ended up on that road by accident one time, and had no idea what it was. At the first bridge I was thinking "wow look at that fancy bridge, looks like it's from the 30s or something". And then there was another one. And another, and another, and another. By that point I finally realized I stumbled into something specific lol.

Crazy how Rob was standing only a few bridges away from the Fairfield Ave. bridge in Norwalk that got destroyed by a tanker truck fire! As of May 2024, officials are expecting the bridge to not be rebuilt and finished for over a year!

The Merritt Parkway is a refreshing change of pace over the normal interstate experience. The on and off ramps are atypical if you're not used to driving in New England, though. You have get up to speed and merge fast on those approaches! Way different than the roads out west, that's for sure.

The Parkways from Long Island, through NYC, and up into Connecticut are a special breed. I’ve ridden the Merritt many times. The interesting thing is how the rest areas get fuel. Some the trucks enter the parkway the exit before and leave the exit after. One of them has tanks only on one side of the parkway and pipes run to the pumps on the other side. One receives fuel deliveries from a side street off the parkway, and if I remember correctly, they back up the hill to behind the service area to where the fills are.

The first TRUE superhighway (which allows both automobiles AND trucks) will always be the Pennsylvania Turnpike (opened in 1940), which was in essence an Autobahn-based roadway designed to bypass treacherous stretches of the Lincoln Highway (US Route 30), especially the portion that had to traverse the Allegheny Ridge.

Back when I lived in CT I remember having a conversation with an older gentleman who told me how long it used to take to drive into NYC on the post road. I remember him saying that the worst thing was that you'd get stuck behind a streetcar which would be constantly stopping.

as someone who grew up in Connecticut i thought this was normal only until i moved west did i learn all highways were so awful looking

ayyo, real insomniac hours

I've never appreciated the art/nature of the Merritt Parkway the hundreds of times I've driven on it, I'll make sure to definitely take a better look next time! I just typically avoid Route 15 because so many Massachusetts/NY/NJ drivers are rerouted that way for through traffic and its just so congested all the time.

We need a deeper dive into Robert Moses and his impact on the highway system as a whole

My father would drive us from Long Island to Vermont for weekend ski trips when I was growing up in the 1970's and 80's. We'd take the Hutchison River Parkway up to 684 to 84, and then 91, getting off somewhere along the Hutch to avoid a 25 cent toll. He did this well into the 90's, long after the toll booths had been removed.

I've been on the Merritt Parkway half a dozen times. It's a really nice drive.

Ah, but this b-roll missed the joys of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the parkway at 8:20am every weekday. 😉 Seriously though thanks for the interesting history lesson! If you’re ever back in the area, a couple of the old toll booths are on display at a park in Stratford.

Dude. LOVE your content. Love how it's all presented. I love how thought out your presentations always are. You are seriously good at this. Anyway, thanks.

I lived in Queens from 1959 to 1972. I remember the Belt Parkway system. My Father would take us on trips to Long Island. This was before 495 was completed. I also remember taking rides with my grandma to Staten Island to visit her parents. Robert Moses and his parkway systems has its plus and minuses. True he didn't want commercial -- and buses on the parkway. Plus where the parkways went tore down and even divided neighborhoods.

My interest in road infrastructure is nearly zero, and yet when Rob posts a video I watch it, and am interested in the content.

Thank you Rob for blessing us with yet another masterpiece, keep it up man we will be here for it

I remember a couple summers ago coming back to my grandparent's in NJ after a road trip that took me through NY, VT, and New Hampshire. My family took the Merritt through CT instead of 95, and while traffic was horrible (Friday afternoon in the NY Metro Area in the summer, not a great mix), One thing that stood out was all of the art-deco bridges. This video makes me appreciate this road more than I ever would have though, and I never really gave it too much thought until now