A parkway is much more than the roadway. It is a corridor, which is set within a context. The right-of-way includes medians and buffers, overpasses and tunnels, entrances and exits, and adjacent parkland.  These constitute its built components (hardscape) and soft components (landscape).  The context includes scenic views, adjacent neighborhoods, features and sites accessible from the roadway -- in short, everything that contributes to its unique character.

In 1938, the National Park Service identified eight factors that differentiated parkways from ordinary highways:

• designated for noncommercial, recreational use
• avoided unsightly buildings and other unattractive roadside developments
• were built within a much wider right-of-way to provide an insulating strip of parkland between the roadway and the abutting private property
• eliminated frontage and access rights and preserved the natural scenic value of the landscape they passed through
• preferably took a new location, bypassing existing built-up communities and avoiding congestion  aimed to make accessible the best scenery in the country it traversed, hence the shortest or most direct route was not necessarily a primary consideration
• eliminated major grade crossings
• had entrance and exit points spaced at distant intervals to reduce interruptions to the main traffic stream

While these criteria apply to parkways generally, each and all well characterize the Henry Hudson Parkway.

The “Context”
Parkways were laid out to capture distinct scenic views for the motorist, which makes those views an integral part of their design. Other elements of the context include historic and cultural features that are either visible from the road or easily accessible. The Henry Hudson Parkway probably has the richest context of any parkway in existence. There is no point along its length without a view of at least one natural or manmade wonder. Each of its exits is the access point to one of the city's major cultural or historic sites or districts.

The Relationship Between Parkways and Parks

Parkways have been called "parks with roads through them."  The Henry Hudson Parkway was built largely with federal funding as a "park access road." Because Robert Moses made use of existing parks as much as possible, in some places the parkland is a pre-existing park (e.g., Riverside Park, Inwood Hill Park, Van Cortlandt Park.) In other places, Moses created parkland as a part of the project (e.g., Riverside Park from the railroad tracks to the river, Henry Hackett Park and Phyllis Post Park in Riverdale). Unfortunately, in many places the original green buffer has been reduced and paved over. But more parkland has been added, as with the Hudson River Greenway, Riverbank State Park, and Greenstreets. Revitalization of the waterfront, especially in Harlem, will be a step toward redressing inequities left by Robert Moses. Grassroots activists have created pocket parks in orphan spaces, like the George Washington Bridge Park, on Port Authority land. While much of this additional parkland is not part of the parkway right-of-way, it all contributes to the "ribbon of parks."

"Parkland for Parkway Purposes"

In response to a request by Robert Moses for an opinion from the State Comptroller in 1932:

"A parkway differs from the ordinary state highway. The state, in building an ordinary state highway, acquires sufficient right of way to build the highway proper and such additional width as may be necessary for grading, drainage and possible future widening of the highway.

"In building a parkway the state not only acquires an amount of land sufficient for the highway proper, but also acquires additional lands on either side of the land acquired for the highway itself, and such additional lands are graded, landscaped, seeded, trees and shrubbery planted, foot paths, bridle paths and picnic grounds are provided, as well as ornamental bridges and lighting fixtures, in addition to parking places in various places along the parkway...

"The modern development of a parkway provides a broad boulevard or thoroughfare sufficient to accommodate heavy traffic with no crossings at grade and no traffic lights. All important crossroads are carried over or under the parkway by means of ornamental bridges. The land on either side of the highway proper is landscaped. Trees and shrubbery are planted for a considerable distance from the highway and the property adjoining the parkway has residential restrictions. The parkways in many instances extend several miles through the country, and in some instances additional lands are acquired at attractive scenic points for picnic grounds for the benefit of the public, so that a parkway provides not only a broad improved throughfare for traffic extending through scenic territory, but also provides recreational facilities for the public who desire to drive out into the country and enjoy the various recreational activities provided along the parkway. The entire parkway is constructed and landscaped with uniform design with the idea of beautifying the lands adjoining the highway."

BUT USE IT OR LOSE IT

In 2001 the New York Supreme Court ruled in the case of the Sprainbrook Parkway that parkland acquired for the purpose of creating a parkway is not protected from alienation as dedicated parkland. It is rather “an open space buffer to ease the burden of and compensate the neighborhood for noise and pollution from the parkway.” The Commissioner of Transportation had the authority to sell it (in this case for development.) The ruling demonstrates the importance of preserving the functions of this parkland as more than just a buffer.

In the case of the Hutchinson River Parkway, East Coast Greenway activist Dave Lutz was able to protect the status of parkway parkland by his discovery of an abandoned macadam trail that ran through it.