These overpasses are located throughout Long Island’s highways. Robert Moses constructed many parkways in Long Island, including the Southern State Parkway which is pictured here. This parkway takes people to the beach but in the 1920s during construction, Moses began to limit access by buses, instructing workers to build the bridges across his new parkways low-too low for buses to pass. Buses had to use local roads which made the trips long and difficult. Moses did this because he believed Black people were “dirty”. Buses also needed permits to enter state parks and buses which carried Black people found it very difficult to obtain a permit. They were told to go to beaches far away but even on those beaches they were shunned away from using ‘white’ beaches. The height of these overpasses made it extremely arduous for people of color to travel to beaches. It limited their accessibility and took them twice as long to get places. The overpasses are still the same height today and trucks and buses are not allowed on.

Grace Sands