Peninsula Boulevard

Peninsula Boulevard is a major, 9.1-mile-long (14.6 km) arterial road through southwestern Nassau County, Long Island, New York. It runs southwest-to-northeast between Cedarhurst connecting the Five Towns area to the Village of Hempstead – in addition to indirectly serving The Rockaways in Queens.

County Route 2

Peninsula Boulevard
Peninsula Boulevard highlighted in dark red
Route information
Maintained by NCDPW
Length9.1 mi (14.6 km)
Existed1950s–present
Major junctions
West endCR 2A / CR 257 in Cedarhurst
Major intersections NY 27 in Lynbrook
East end NY 24 in Hempstead
Location
CountryUnited States
StateNew York
CountyNassau
Highway system

For its entire length, Peninsula Boulevard is maintained by the Nassau County Department of Public Works as the unsigned County Route 2.[1]

Route description

Peninsula Blvd in Hempstead Lake State Park.

Peninsula Boulevard (CR 2)

Peninsula Boulevard begins in Cedarhurst at Rockaway Turnpike (CR 257), near a connecting road to New York State Route 878 (Nassau Expressway), and runs through the Five Towns area, where it spends much of its journey running northeast and southwest as a four-lane undivided thoroughfare. In Hewlett, it becomes a divided highway at Franklin Street and then runs beneath a bridge for the Far Rockaway Branch of the Long Island Rail Road between Mill Road and Gibson Boulevard.[2]

After Gibson Boulevard, Peninsula Boulevard's median becomes wider as it winds towards Rockaway Avenue, only to return to its former stature a short distance later. Within Lynbrook, the road takes a sharp northern trajectory after the intersection with New York State Route 27 (Sunrise Highway) and almost immediately runs beneath Lynbrook Long Island Rail Road station. CR 2 returns to the northeast at South Niemann Avenue, and then intersects Merrick Road shortly thereafter and thence Ocean Avenue.

After Ocean Avenue, CR 2 runs as a divided roadway along the southeastern edge of Hempstead Lake State Park. This divided portion was the original route of the Southern State Parkway before the parkway's current route was constructed across Hempstead Lake. Between Lakeview Avenue and the Southern State Parkway, it contains residential frontage roads on the east side, and pedestrian bridges over the road, the first being Lakeside Drive, and the second being North Village Avenue. The segment along North Village Avenue was a former segment of the Southern State Parkway.[3] The second of these frontage roads ends at Mercy Hospital on the southeast corner of the interchange with the current Southern State Parkway at Exit 19 in South Hempstead.

Beyond the Southern State Parkway, the road maintains its status as a divided highway even as it enters the Village of Hempstead, where it briefly turns east as it intersects Franklin, Greenwich, and Henry Streets. It is at the latter where the road turns back to the northeast to serve as the southern terminus of Clinton Street, which leads to Glen Cove Road, then intersects New York State Route 102 (Front Street), and finally terminates at New York State Route 24 (Fulton Street).

Bay Boulevard (CR 2A)

Bay Boulevard is a short extension of Peninsula Boulevard in Cedarhurst. It runs from an intersection at Rockaway Turnpike (CR 257) to an industrial area just west of Nassau Expressway (NY 878).

History

Peninsula Boulevard was constructed in the 1950s by Nassau County as one of its first major north–south arterial highways.[2] The segment between Ocean Avenue in Lynbrook and the Bay Boulevard/Rockaway Turnpike intersection at the Cederhurst–Inwood border officially opened on July 11, 1954.[2] During this phase of the construction of Peninsula Boulevard, the Long Island Rail Road's Far Rockaway Branch was elevated to pass above the road in Woodmere.[2]

Route shields

Peninsula Boulevard, along with all of the other county routes in Nassau County, became unsigned in the 1970s, when Nassau County officials opted to remove the signs as opposed to allocating the funds for replacing them with new ones that met the latest federal design standards and requirements, as per the federal government's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.[4][5]

Major intersections

The entire route is in Nassau County.

LocationmikmDestinationsNotes
Cedarhurst0.000.00
Rockaway Turnpike (CR 257) / Bay Boulevard west (CR 2A) to NY 878
Lynbrook3.816.13 NY 27 (Sunrise Highway)No left turns
3.886.24Merrick Road (CR 27)
Lakeview5.799.32Lakeside Drive Hempstead Lake State Park
South Hempstead7.3211.78 Southern State Parkway New York, East IslipExits 19S-N on Southern Parkway
Village of Hempstead8.5813.81Greenwich Street (CR 7B)
8.6813.97Washington Street (CR 7A north)Southern terminus of CR 7A
8.7714.11Clinton Street (CR 1)
8.8614.26 NY 102 (Front Street)
9.1114.66 NY 24 (Fulton Avenue) / Bennett Avenue north
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

  1. "County Roads Listing: Nassau County" (PDF). New York State Department of Transportation. July 26, 2011. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
  2. "PENINSULA LINK OPENED; Boulevard Section Is Between Lynbrook and Inwood". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
  3. Hempstead Lake State Park (Map). Topographic. Cartography by USGS. United States Geological Survey. 1947 via Historic Aerials Online.
  4. "Nassau-Suffolk County Road History". 2009-01-03. Archived from the original on 2009-01-03. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  5. Anderson, Steve. "County Roads on Long Island". NYCRoads. Archived from the original on January 3, 2009. Retrieved January 3, 2008.
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