systems and made it possible to limit access to it to a few places. All grade intersections were eliminated and trucks were excluded.
The parkway’s designers laid it out as a series of long curves connected by short tangents—not so much to make the road intentionally crooked as to follow the sinuosities of the river valley, and thus reduce the depth of the cuts and fills. They laid the grade line to fit the ground closely and varied and rounded the slopes with unusual freedom to blend into the adjacent land forms.[N 1]
The construction methods were no less revolutionary than the design. Instead of clearing everything back to the right-of-way line, the Bronx River Parkway builders saved all trees not actually within construction limits. They saved the precious topsoil, and later spread it over the finished slopes of the parkway as a seedbed for grass and plants to arrest erosion. The landscape plan was informal, blending the parkway slopes into the adjacent forest and fields.
Rapid Spread of Parkways in the New York Metropolitan Area
The Bronx River Parkway was opened to traffic in 1923. It was so popular with the people of Westchester County that they got the Legislature to set up the Westchester County Park Commission with authority to build more parkways. This Commission approached parkways from a somewhat different angle. The Bronx River Parkway had been primarily an environmental cleanup project and pleasure drive. The Westchester County Parkways, on the other hand, were deliberately planned as suburban commuting arteries by locating them through the corridors between the existing steam and electric railroads that radiated out into the county from New York City. Thus, the parkways not only moved commuters into the city, but also made additional areas of the county available for development. The consequent large increases in taxable values were more than enough to finance the very considerable costs of the parkway program. Because of the high class residential character of Westchester County, the Commissioners were careful to retain for the new parkways the high esthetic standards that had been established on the Bronx River Parkway, as well as the wide right-of-way and access control features. Their principal change in policy was to flatten curvature somewhat to permit higher operating speeds.
Commuter and recreational parkways spread rapidly throughout the New York metropolitan area and, to some extent, in and near Washington, D.C., but did not become popular elsewhere.[N 2]
Influence of the Parkway Concept on Highway Design
Parkways, designed and operated essentially as commuter arteries, were tangible challenges to the dogma expressed by Upham that there are two kinds of highways—scenic and commercial. Here were highways that were essentially commercial, transporting workers to and from their offices, and also scenic or at least attractive. The fallacy of the old position was aptly expressed in 1932 by a distinguished committee of architects, engineers and planners:
Highways traverse varied landscapes and should differ accordingly. However, we regard as unsound the common idea that they may be classified as scenic and commercial and that the appearance of the latter is of minor consequence. Scenery does not consist only of spectacular views. All outdoors is scenery of one kind or another. Therefore, wherever the rural character of the landscape has not been violated, a highway is scenic. Classification according to assumed use is no more valid. When a tourist comes to San Francisco, or a citizen leaves and enters on a holiday, the Bay Shore Highway is a pleasure road ; and when a resident of Eureka is called by his affairs to Crescent City, the Redwood Highway becomes a business road. Differing localities and circumstances may suggest different kinds of beauty, but every highway should be beautiful, with the kind of beauty appropriate to it.[1]
The principles of parkway design—the wide park-like right-of-way, control of access, elimination of grade crossings with other highways, fitting of the alinement and grade to the natural contours of the ground without using excessive cuts and fills, shaping and rounding slopes to merge them into the adjacent natural land forms, restoring natural vegetation to protect parkway surfaces from erosion, and preserving a high standard of architectural excellence for bridges and other structures—were all developed and proved out in practice before 1926. Yet these principles were almost totally ignored by the designers of other highways, which were laid out with long tangents and rollercoaster grade lines within narrow rights-of-way, with little effort to protect their steep side slopes from erosion. On these highways practically the only concession to pleasing appearance was the occasional planting of trees on the right-of-way.[N 3]
The first application of parkway principles to ordinary highways—on a very limited scale—came in 1933. The regulations for administering the National Industrial Recovery Act grants made it clear that the work done under these grants should include landscaping on a reasonably extensive mileage of roads. The States then programed 1,500 miles of roadside improvement projects costing about $2.22 million. These were mostly on main highways near cities and towns where they would provide employment and also serve as demonstrations of what could be accomplished to beautify roads.
- ↑ At this time, other highways were designed with uniform slopes, usually 1½ or 2 horizontal to 1 vertical, for economy of excavation and to stay within the narrow rights-of-way. Contractors prided themselves on dressing these slopes accurately and smoothly for a neat and workmanlike appearance.
- ↑ One reason for this lack of popularity was their high cost. The Bronx River Parkway cost $15 million for 15 miles, which included the parkland and measures to reclaim it from blight. The Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, the first parkway in the Washington area and opened to traffic in 1932, cost $500,000 per mile.
- ↑ The Amendment of May 21, 1928 (45 Stat 683) authorized the use of Federal-aid funds for planting shade trees along highways.
This program, although clumsily carried out in many localities, was an immediate public relations success. It inspired strong public support for landscaping and roadside improvement, something that had been lacking up to that time. Of equal importance, it focused the attention of the State highway
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- ↑ I. F. Morrow, Report of the Section on Architecture of the Commonwealth Club of California, The Commonwealth, Vol. 8, No. 46, Nov. 15, 1932, p. 245.
