Merrick Road Toll Sign

More than 100 years before Robert Moses stitched the island together with his ribbons of automobile parkways, Long Island was first connected by a series of privately-operated carriage turnpikes, starting in 1801 with a road in Queens operated by the Flushing Bridge and Turnpike Company. By the 1840s, turnpikes had connected most of Long Island’s communities from the North Shore to the South Shore and “wherever the turnpike came,” one observer noted, “rural isolation began to break down.” As this original sign indicates, the fare for riding on these toll roads often depended upon the type of vehicle, as well as the means by which it was pulled.