help matters by aggressively opposing paralleling road projects, on the grounds that it would spoil the views from the highway. The next section of the Taconic, north to NY 55, east of Poughkeepsie, opened in late 1939. That year, Roosevelt wrote the commission with another suggestion, that an extension be built westward to Hyde Park. The commission also acquired Lake Taghkanic, the next park it proposed for the parkway. 1941–49: the war years The Poughkeepsie connection allowed traffic to access the new Mid-Hudson Bridge, making the Taconic a more vital link in the state road network. In 1940 traffic counts increased heavily, showing that the parkway was now being used for more than the weekend pleasure trips it was originally intended for. The TSPC erected two more service areas, Shenandoah north of Hosner Mountain Road, and Todd Hill Road, to accommodate the increased traffic. The commission also closed (permanently, as it turned out) the bridle paths along the median strip in Putnam County, unsure about how it would pay for them. In 1941, two developments occurred with a major impact on the highway. Early that year, Assemblyman Stephens introduced a bill similar to the one Lehman had vetoed four years earlier. This time it passed, giving the TSPC not only the $3.6 million (equivalent to $ in ) to extend the parkway to Columbia County but putting the Westchester sections, including the entire Bronx River Parkway extension and the planned Bear Mountain Parkway, under the commission's jurisdiction. Later that year the U.S. entered World War II, putting a halt to actual construction for the duration. The War Department designated the Taconic a military highway, requiring it to be open for troop movements. It also deemed the Croton Reservoir bridge strategically important and had it protected by armed guards. The commission lowered the speed limit from 40 to 30 mph (65 to 50 km/h) to conserve fuel, limited maintenance to snow removal and mowing and kept streetlights off everywhere except the bridge throughout the war. The speed limit on the section from Valhalla to Hawthorne was increased back to 40 mph until 1962. Planning continued for the northern Dutchess stretch, to be built after the war. With the enforced break in construction, and its new authority over the entire road, the commission began to look at ways to improve what had already been built, especially in light of the road's growing