QUEENS, N.Y. — A walk through a tunnel from Cunningham Park under the Clearview Expressway leads to peace and quiet. This bike and pedestrian path in Queens wasn't always that way since it was originally planned as a race course.

"There would be race cars driving through here, this road was established by William K. Vanderbilt," said Parks Department Urban Park Ranger Nadilyn Beato, referring to the railroad mogul and financier who built the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, also known as the Long Island Motor Parkway, in 1908.  

It was one of America's first roads created just for cars, a high speed route from Queens to Eastern Long Island.

After beginning as a race course, it opened to the public as a toll road. By 1938, it was shut down because it wasn't profitable, and couldn't compete with the parkways developed by Robert Moses.

"With the development of better vehicles they decided to invest more in roads and they started making New York State Parkways, and this parkway kind of fell off the radar," Beato explained.

Three months after it closed, Moses transformed the Queens section of the parkway into a bicycle path. It's now three miles long connecting Cunningham and Alley Pond Parks.

There are relics from the original road like several overpasses and some concrete posts. Other than that, the transformation has given neighbors a place to see nature, exercise and get away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Eddie Grassel, who is known here as Fast Eddie, has been running on the trail for 40 years.

"We thought about moving and I said to my wife, no way, we are staying here it's too fantastic," said Grassel, who added the parkway has come in particularly helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So even though visitors can see and hear cars up on the Clearview, which runs adjacent to the parkway where it begins in Cunningham Park, there are certainly no more motor vehicles on the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway anymore.