September 29, 1959: The Long Island Expressway Opens

September 29, 1959: The Long Island Expressway opens, running 71 miles from the Queens-Midtown Tunnel in New York City to Calverton, in Riverhead, Sussex County. Bannered as Interstate 495, it is the most important east-west traffic artery on Long Island, consisting of Nassau County to the west and Suffolk County in the east. Although Suffolk County is far larger in area, they have roughly the same population.

The LIE -- and reports of traffic moving well on it are often a lie -- helped to make possible the Island's tremendous growth after World War II.

Other noteworthy east-west highways on Long Island are New York State Routes 25 (the Jericho Turnpike), 25A (known as Northern Boulevard in Queens) and 27 (the Sunrise Highway and, further east, the Montauk Highway); and the Southern State Parkway, which is not bannered as a New York State Route.

The LIE's exits start with 13, in the Hunters Point section of Queens, for the Pulaski Bridge into Brooklyn. Exits 13 to 32 are in Queens, 33 to 48 are in Nassau, and 49 to 73 are in Suffolk. Exits 22A (the Grand Central Parkway) and 22B (the Van Wyck Expressway) can be used to access the New York Mets' Citi Field and La Guardia Airport. Exit 22B can also be used to access John F. Kennedy International Airport, which is the southern terminus of the Van Wyck.

Exit 31 can be used for the Cross Island Parkway, leading to Belmont Park Racetrack and the New York Islanders' new UBS Arena. Exit 39 can be used for the Northern State Parkway, which flows into the Meadowbrook Parkway and leads to the Nassau Coliseum and Hofstra University. However, the LIE stops before the forking of Long Island, and well short of the resort towns known as "The Hamptons."

There have been plans for crossings of Long Island Sound that would have involved the LIE:

* Oyster Bay in Nassau County with Rye in Westchester County.
* Glen Cove in Nassau with Rye.

* Asharoken in Suffolk County with Norwalk, Connecticut.

* Shoreham in Suffolk with New Haven, Connecticut.

* East Marion in Suffolk with Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

* A long bridge from Orient Point, the tip of the North Fork, across Plum Island to Little Gull Island, to Fishers Island, to Napatree Point in Rhode Island.

* Most ambitious of all, a really long bridge from Montauk Point, the tip of the South Fork, across Block Island in Rhode Island, to Point Judith on the Rhode Island mainland.

For now, the only crossings of the Sound are the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry, and the Cross Sound Ferry from Orient to New London, Connecticut.

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September 29, 1959 was a Tuesday. There was only one score on this historic day, but it was a significant one. It was Game 2 of the National League Playoff, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. I have a separate entry for this event.

Only 36,528 fans came out to the 93,000-seat bowl on the edge of South Central, by the campus of the University of Southern California. Like in 1946, but not in 1951, the Los Angeles Dodgers made sure the Playoff series didn't go to a Game 3. Unlike both of those times, it ended in their favor. They scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th to send the game to extra innings. With 2 outs in the 12th, 1st baseman Gil Hodges drew a walk, catcher Joe Pignatano singled, and right fielder Carl Furillo singled home Hodges with the Pennant-winning run, 6-5.