Shore Front Parkway is a two-lane beachfront road paralleling the boardwalk

Boardwalk

A boardwalk, in the conventional sense, is a wooden walkway for pedestrians and sometimes vehicles, often found along beaches, but they are also common as paths through wetlands, coastal dunes, and other sensitive environments....

 in Rockaway Beach

Rockaway Beach, Queens

Rockaway Beach is a neighborhood on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located on the South Shore of Long Island. The neighborhood is bounded by Arverne to the east and Rockaway Park to the west...

 in the New York City borough

Borough (New York City)

New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...

 of Queens

Queens

Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

, running between Beach 73rd Street and Beach 108th Street.

The parkway was opened in 1939 under the direction of Robert Moses

Robert Moses

Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...

, who was the Commissioner of Parks of New York City at the time. Often called the "road to nowhere" by Rockaway residents because its termini do not access any well-traveled locations, Shore Front Parkway was intended by Moses as a link in a never-completed grand shorefront drive extending from Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 to the Hamptons

Hamptons

The Hamptons may refer to several villages and hamlets in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on the far east end of Suffolk County in Long Island, New York. These townships occupy the South Fork of Long Island, stretching into the Atlantic Ocean. The Hamptons form a popular seaside resort,...

. This project of Moses' was permanently thwarted in the 1960s when the National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

 gained control of the bulk of Fire Island

Fire Island, New York

Fire Island is one of the outer barrier islands adjacent to the south shore of Long Island, New York. It is approximately long and varies between broad. Fire Island is part of Suffolk County. It comprises a number of hamlets, census-designated places , and villages, all of which lie within the...

 in Suffolk County

Suffolk County, New York

Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...

, an essential link in the proposed highway, and decreed that it remain a permanently roadless National Seashore

Fire Island National Seashore

Fire Island National Seashore is a United States National Seashore that protects a section of Fire Island, an approximately long barrier island separated from Long Island by the Great South Bay....

.

Construction of the parkway entailed total or partial demolition of many private residences and thriving beachfront businesses and attractions, particularly the "mechanical gadgetlands" that Moses was known to despise. The Rockaways' Playland

Rockaways' Playland

Rockaways' Playland was an amusement park located on Beach 98th Street in Rockaway Beach in the Borough of Queens, New York City, at Beach 98 Street between Rockaway Beach Boulevard and the beachfront...

 amusement park suffered permanent truncation to make way for the road. Even today, despite its width, the parkway yields relatively little vehicular use.

Shore Front Parkway has been changed to a two lane road as a result of a cyclist mortality, in an attempt to slow traffic down to a safer speed.

In July 2007, the New York City Department of Transportation

New York City Department of Transportation

The New York City Department of Transportation is responsible for the management of much of New York City's transportation infrastructure...

 announced that it will extend Shore Front Parkway through Beach 67th Street, where it will intersect with Rockaway Beach Boulevard

Rockaway Beach Boulevard

Rockaway Beach Boulevard, opened in 1886, was the first major east-west thoroughfare on the Rockaway Peninsula in the Borough of Queens in New York City. Much of its route parallels the Rockaway Freeway and the IND Rockaway Line above the Freeway...

This extension will be called "Beach Front Road." Ultimately, Beach Front Road will continue through Beach 60th Street.