The Robert Moses Causeway is an parkway in Suffolk County, New York on Long Island. The parkway, originally known as the Captree Causeway, connects West Islip on Long Island to the barrier beach islands, such as Captree Island,

Jones Beach Island Jones Beach Island is one of the outer barrier islands off the southern coast of Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. Etymology It is named for Major Thomas Jones, who first came to Long Island in 1692, where he proceeded to build the ...

, and the western tip of

Fire Island Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Lo ...

, to the south. It is designated New York State Route 908J (NY 908J), an unsigned reference route. Except south of NY 27A, the road, like most parkways in New York State, is limited to non-commercial traffic.

Route description

The Robert Moses Causeway begins inside Robert Moses State Park, located on the western tip of Fire Island. From here, the highway heads north across the

Fire Island Inlet Fire Island Inlet is an inlet on the south shore of Long Island, New York. It connects the Great South Bay with the Atlantic Ocean, passing between Robert Moses State Park (the western end of Fire Island) on the south and Oak Beach and Cap ...

on the

Fire Island Inlet Bridge The Fire Island Inlet Bridge, an integral part of the Robert Moses Causeway, is a two-lane, steel tied arch span with a concrete deck that carries the parkway over Fire Island Inlet. Construction of the Fire Island Bridge was completed in 1964 ...

. On the north side of the inlet, the road changes from a two-lane undivided highway into a four-lane undivided highway as it enters Captree State Park and approaches a cloverleaf interchange with Ocean Parkway. The parkway becomes a five-lane divided highway with three northbound lanes and two southbound lanes in the vicinity of the junction. The parkway then traverses the State Boat Channel Bridge by way of a -long

bascule bridge A bascule bridge (also referred to as a drawbridge or a lifting bridge) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- o ...

modeled after the Mill Basin Drawbridge in

Mill Basin, Brooklyn Mill Basin is a residential neighborhood in southeastern Brooklyn, New York City. It is on a peninsula abutting Jamaica Bay and is bordered by Avenue U on the northwest and the Mill Basin/Mill Island Inlet on its remaining sides. Mill Basin ...

. The north foot of the bridge contains an unnumbered interchange to a private road on Captree Island, where the rest of the road is surrounded by protected land. On the section that crosses over the

Great South Bay The Great South Bay is a lagoon situated between Long Island and Fire Island, in the State of New York. It is about long and has an average depth of 4 feet 3 inches and is 20 feet at its deepest. It is protected from the Atlantic Ocean by Fire ...

, via the

Great South Bay Bridge The Great South Bay Bridge is a bridge on the southwest side of Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island. It connects the Robert Moses Causeway from Long Island's mainland over the Great South Bay, connecting to Captree and Jones Beach islan ...

, the New York City skyline can be faintly seen on a clear day. Originally a

toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...

, the remnants of the former

toll plaza A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemente ...

for the Great South Bay Bridge can be found on the north side in West Islip. At the cloverleaf interchange with NY 27A, the third northbound lane becomes the

deceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by t ...

ramp, and from there the rest of the parkway is four lanes wide. The parkway soon takes a slight northeastern turn and later rises to move over Union Boulevard ( County Route 50 or CR 50), the

Montauk Branch The Montauk Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles (185 km) from Long Island City on the west to Montauk on the east. Howe ...

of the Long Island Rail Road, and Orinoco Drive with no access to either roads. Instead, another cloverleaf interchange is available at NY 27. The road remains elevated as it crosses over Muncey Road and then runs along the west side of Casamento Park, before approaching its northern terminus at the interchange with the

Southern State Parkway The Southern State Parkway (also known as the Southern State or Southern Parkway; abbreviated as SO on signage) is a limited-access highway on Long Island, New York, in the United States. The parkway begins at an interchange with the Belt and C ...

. The north-to-eastbound ramp to the Southern State and Heckscher State parkways contains an interchange of its own with CR 57 (Bay Shore Road), because that ramp's traffic misses the Southern State Parkway exit to CR 57. The other

ramps An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...

exist on a partial cloverleaf just west of Bay Shore Road's interchange with the Southern State.

History

The first sprawling trestle crossing from West Islip to Captree Island was completed in 1951. The structure is in length with a middle clearance for boats of .

National Bridge Inventory The National Bridge Inventory (NBI) is a database, compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, with information on all bridges and tunnels in the United States that have roads passing above or below them. That is similar to the grade-crossing ...

, a database compiled by the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States a ...

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program ...

, available at www.nationalbridges.com. Accessed August 29, 2007. Originally, one lane was for southbound traffic and the other for northbound traffic. In a bridge opening ceremony, the first car to drive over the bridge was a Suffolk County Sheriff's Office patrol vehicle. In 1967, a new span was built next to the original bridge, carrying three lanes of northbound traffic. The original bridge was reconfigured to carry southbound traffic. The Fire Island Inlet span was completed in 1964. By 1985 a

dual span Twin bridges are a set of two bridges running parallel to each other. A pair of twin bridges is often referred to collectively as a twin-span or dual-span bridge. Twin bridges are independent structures and each bridge has its own superstructu ...

was proposed to alleviate traffic, but it was never constructed. When first proposed in 1938, the span was to be a

vertical-lift bridge A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and sw ...

with a design similar to that of the

Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge The Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge (originally and often referred to as the Marine Parkway Bridge) is a vertical-lift bridge in New York City, New York, that crosses Rockaway Inlet. The bridge, which opened on July 3, 1937, con ...

. Later, the design of the Fire Island Bridge was changed to conform with that of the Great South Bay span, a steel-arch span with a clearance.

Exit list

All exits south of the

are unnumbered.

References

External links

{{NYSR external links, alps=cause, termini=robert_moses
Robert Moses Causeway Article from NYCROADS Web Site

(Empire State Roads)
Captree State Park

Robert Moses State Park

Robert Moses Causeway (Greater New York Roads)
Parkways in New York (state) Roads on Long Island Robert Moses projects Transportation in Suffolk County, New York Former toll roads in New York (state) Former toll bridges in New York (state) Bascule bridges in the United States Trestle bridges in the United States Road bridges in New York (state) Bridges in Suffolk County, New York