I live on Long Island and grew up knowing the name Robert Moses. It is a very popular beach in the area. During high school I learned that he was also responsible for the three highways that ran across Long Island, the Long Island Expressway, the Northern State Parkway and the Southern State Parkway. These are the only roads that can get you on or off the island and if you ask me they work out just fine.
Others have a lot of complaints about the road systems, saying they cause congestion and are poorly planned. An interesting fact about them is that he built them purposely to keep out the lower classes. All of the overhangs are extremely low so trucks cannot go on either parkway. He did this to keep it so buses from Manhattan could not come out to the beaches. He felt that if they could the homeless and lower classes would use the buses to invade the island and take away from its beauty. He was extremely partial to the upper classes and built the highways so they could more easily commute. He was a good friend of Henry Fords and was trying to help out the production of the automobile.
Moses may have a lot of haters but either way he had great influence upon the cities of America. he is viewed as a master builder who structured the way Long Island runs. He may have doomed Long Islanders to constant congestion but he also provided us with some of the prettiest beaches in the country, I think thats a fine trade.
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