decades to complete from the initial parkway proposal by TSPC chair Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1925 to the opening of the last segment in 1963, due in part to a lengthy hiatus resulting from World War II. Construction technology and highway design standards changed during the construction of the road, changes whose effect is still visible to drivers today. Since its completion it has been renovated, particularly in Dutchess and Westchester counties, reflecting the change in its role from park access route and scenic drive to important regional transportation artery. Background Immigration and industrialization caused a major increase in New York City's population in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the summertime, many of these newer residents began looking for places to get away from the hot city and the densely populated tenements they lived in. The city's own parks and beaches were often overcrowded. Automobiles became more affordable, and by 1917 there were more cars than horses in the city. Drivers began taking to low-quality roads in search of parks outside the city, but were often disappointed after long drives to find that most of those parks were closed to nonresidents. In 1900, New York and New Jersey had jointly acquired the Palisades, the cliffs along the west side of the Hudson in both states, to protect them from further damage due to quarrying. Making it a park for city residents to visit on hot summer weekends had not been part of the plan, but it quickly became one. Many residents could not get to it because of insufficient ferry capacity. Its success as a park led to the establishment of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission and the construction of Palisades Interstate Parkway to allow nonstop drives through scenic and wooded areas through Palisades Park up to the Bear Mountain Bridge. During his successful campaign for the State Senate in 1910, Roosevelt had toured the district in a car, still not common in the area, the first candidate to do so. He became more interested in the possibilities of automobile touring ten years later when, paralysis resulting from polio having cost the effective use of his legs, Roosevelt began frequently taking his friends on such trips around the region. During them, he began pondering the idea of a north–south parkway through the eastern Hudson Valley. In 1922, as part of its political reform efforts, the New York