Roosevelt Avenue looms in the background, with the IRT #7 Flushing line elevated subway structure sporting a car ad.The late spring 1998 greenery is growing lush in the midst of what would be a record breaking rainfall year. Immediately after passing under Roosevelt Avenue, the BQE made it's last run towards both the Triborough Bridge and Grand Central Parkway. That last section dated from the 1930's and was chronically in horrible condition. Indeed, it was a nightmare to drive on even in the best condition, because it was so poorly designed. Woodside was traditionally a heavily Irish, German and Slavic ethnic enclave. Corona, one neighborhood away down Roosevelt Avenue to the right, had many South, Central and Mexican Americans. Jackson Heights, which succeeds Woodside past Roosevelt, was an eclectic cross between the two, as diverse a neighborhood as one is likely to find anywhere on earth. A significant Gay community had already taken root there by 1998, and many Indo-Pakistani, Chinese and Korean immigrants made their homes there as well. Jackson Heights actually became so trendy, that tourists came there to eat. This was all as of June 1998. As I rewrite this in 2017, both Woodside and Jackson Heights are extremely chi chi neighborhoods. Corona, not so much, but I'm sure its day is fast approaching. Now if you already read the 41st Avenue page and seen what this stretch of BQE looks like now on Google Maps/Earth, you know this scene we're looking at here from 20 years earlier no longer exists. The sweeping exit ramp on the right, which just passed under 41st Avenue, where I shot this from, was totally destroyed. The retaining wall stemming from 41st Avenue now curls away from the highway lanes instead of the ramp. Curiously, the present day Roosevelt Avenue overpass extends to the east (right) of the BQE over a jungle of vegetation, as though the plan was to maybe add a service road or some such between 41st and Broadway. Frankly, I can't fathom what they were thinking by the additional underpass sections where the old exit 37 ramp used to be. It looks like a God given gift to area homeless folks and junkies. The Google view shows the support pillars and walls of that useless underpass complex covered in graffiti. Like the other overpasses, Roosevelt's got the ugly concrete facing applied and all the reconstructed overpasses are equipped with "nutjob netting" fencing to discourage yobs from lobbing missiles onto highway motorists.