[2] The parkway was privately built by William Kissam Vanderbilt II with overpasses and bridges to remove most intersections.

Vanderbilt responded by establishing a company to build a graded, banked and grade-separated highway suitable for racing that was also free of the horse manure dust often churned up by motor cars.

Only 45 miles (72 km) (from Queens in New York City to Lake Ronkonkoma) were constructed, at a cost of $6 million.

[7] The Long Island Motor Parkway was the first road designed exclusively for automobile use, the first concrete highway in the United States, and the first to use overpasses and bridges to eliminate intersections.

[10] Once located at the junction of Clinton Road and Vanderbilt Court, it was moved in 1989 to 230 Seventh Street, now the headquarters of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce.

[14] In July 1938, the remainder of the parkway's land was given to Nassau County and the Long Island State Parks Commission.

The road continues as a spur route that enters Alley Pond Park, crosses under the Grand Central Parkway, and provides access to Union Turnpike before ending at Union Turnpike and Winchester Boulevard at the park's eastern boundary.

[17] The Nassau County roadway has been redeveloped, or turned into a right of way for Long Island Power Authority transmission lines.

A small section of the roadway remains in Lake Success in Great Neck, though unmarked and not open to the public.

On the east side of the avenue, several hundred yards of road provide access to the Williston Park pool property abutting the LIRR.

The parkway heads eastward, paralleling the expressway (with access to and from the LIE) before ultimately crossing it and continuing southeast to NY 111 (Joshua's Path).

It heads east across Old Nichols and Terry roads ahead of one final northeastward turn to end at Rosevale Avenue (CR 93) in Ronkonkoma, close to the lake.

Led by the winner of the 1909 and 1910 Vanderbilt Cup races, a parade of automobiles made prior to 1948 went from Dix Hills to Lake Ronkonkoma.