Courtesy Lou Corsaro, NB coming off of the Outerbridge Crossing.

The next several photos are courtesy Scott Colbert. I'll tell you when he leaves off and I begin.


Ugly shield exiting the Park and Ride at the southern end of the West Shore Expressway.


Looking up the P&R ramp to NY 440 NB, one sees this is highly overpowered for a ramp from a parking lot. In fact, this was going to be the mainline for the West Shore Expressway, which was to have continued southwest toward Hylan Boulevard. Without the completion of the freeway, the northbound ramp to NY 440 SB (Richmond Parkway - well, Korean War something something now, but like the Interboro, I'm not honoring renames) was never completed, so there is no direct Park and Ride access to that bridge. The striped area in the shoulder would have been exit lanes for that ramp.


Exploring the graded but unpaved ramp-to-be from the Park and Ride to NY 440 WB. Why this ramp wasn't opened to benefit the Park and Ride is beyond me.


SB onramp from Veterans Road West (frontage road). The frontage road exists in pieces, with a gap between two halves of Veterans Road East and West thanks to undeveloped land (this is a theme, take note).


NB button copy. Of interest is the tacked-on NY 440 on the last sign. NY 440 was supposed to follow the Richmond Parkway, up the heart of Staten Island, tying directly into what is now the Willowbrook Expressway (see below). Instead, the Parkway gives way into Richmond Avenue at Arthur Kill Road, with untouched natural land proving an insurmountable obstacle. For photos of that, follow the link at bottom. Anyway, for many years, NY 440 did follow Richmond Parkway-Avenue to the Willowbrook, but was finally routed onto the West Shore Expressway when it was completed, to have an all-freeway route through the island, and that's when this shield was added. Presumably the sign predates the completion of the West Shore (i.e. when just a portion was open).


From Victory Blvd. WB right before it ends, clearly dating to the opening of the full West Shore in 1976.

The rest of the photos are mine.


Victory Boulevard EB at the beginning of the ex-Willowbrook Expressway (now MLK Jr.).


Looking southward at the MLK Jr. Expressway stub at Victory Blvd. Staten Island was planned to have a much more extensive network of freeways than it does. The original plan had the Willowbrook heading south to complement Richmond Avenue, meeting the Richmond Parkway. This all would have been NY 440, and indeed Richmond was signed NY 440 for many years. The West Shore Expressway, which now carries NY 440 from the Outerbridge Crossing to I-278, would have been a reference route or perhaps even an Interstate (if not a different state route), and there may even have been an East Shore Expressway as well. Instead, there are stubs here and at the ends of Richmond Pkwy. and the West Shore.


Original curb and shoulder on the stub that have never seen traffic.


Now looking northward at the beginning of the Expressway, with I-278 immediately in the background.

Into NJ on NJ 440
Onto Richmond Parkway
Onto I-278
The West Shore Expressway and MLK Jr. Expressway on Steve Anderson's nycroads.com
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