It's August 2001, just a shade prior to 9-11 and we're descending off the Queens bound Kosciuszko Bridge, that being the old one that was replaced in 2017. The catch as catch can method of light pole roadkill replacements have the by then aged Deskey SLECO long masted standard survivors sharing the highway with decidedly plainer standards of varying styles, from standard length elliptical to extended length truss arms. This is a muscular looking length of highway and a crazy roller coaster that has the Brooklyn Queens Expressway coming in for a near total landing for only a blink of an eye before it has to soar into the air again to not only vault the lower level of the double decked Long Island Expressway, but the upper deck as well and thence continue on past New Calvary Cemetery as an elevated highway again, this time over Laurel Hill Boulevard as it just had over Brooklyn's Meeker Avenue. Not only does the BQE often not know if it's coming or going, it doesn't know from one second to another if it's flying or crawling.

We're veering rightward here, ready to leave the blessed BQE Interstate 278 for the eastbound LIE as the Long Island Expressway is less than lovingly called. That the LIE's initials spell the word "lie" is no coincidence to those who suffer daily commutes from hell on it. To put yourself forth as an Express anything and routinely crawl as you do does kind of stamp you as a liar. The prominent billboard advertises onetime Wu-Tang Clan associate Remedy, a rare Jewish rapper. Are we going to be stuck behind that same black commercial van with the non commercial plates all the way onto the Long Island Expressway? We will see.

We're just about up to point of no return, when we kiss Interstate 278 goodbye and buy into the Big LIE, the Long Island Expressway, which in rush hour would be better termed the Long Commute Extra-Time-Way. If I were I-278, I wouldn't be very happy to see I-495 get such a big sign positioned next to my little one. It's only consolation is that its sign looks fresher, while the Interstate 495 badge looks weather beaten. With so much wasted space on the huge trussed overhead gantry holding the signs, you'd think they could have given JFK Airport its own full size green directional instead of the little postcard with the plane thingee on it. Among other things we're seeing the last of as we leave the Brooklyn Queens are the long, brace masted Deskey light poles. The upper deck of the Long Island Expressway actually was lined with them as well, but we were never going to get up there regardless, since this exit leads you to the lower level.

Another set of overhead directional signs and we're kind of getting mixed messages here. Earlier the left hand sign was heavy on the East and the Bronx and it was tiny compared to the I-495 LI Expressway 48th Street notice. Now the score has evened up some size wise and the LI Expressway sign needs a boost from the little Exit 35 rectangle atop its head to appear larger than it's husky neighbor. That neighbor in turn doesn't mention east or Bronx at all. Now LaGuardia Airport is the big deal along with the Triboro Bridge, that's now called the RFK Bridge after Robert F Kennedy, who was New York State's junior first term senator before becoming a martyred presidential candidate. As for LaGuardia, why does it get so much headline attention here, while the far larger and more important JFK Airport only got that measly postcard size sign earlier? Even here, is 48th Street really so important that in a choice between it being on the big directional or JFK, it wins? Even more than LaGuardia or the Triboro however, the hefty left hand sign emphasizes that we're heading for the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. Just one big issue with that; we're already on it! Far more helpful would have been repeating the Bronx, not so much the East since in reality we're really going north, if we were staying put on the BQE that is, which we're not, so actually WE ARE going East, only not that phony baloney East the previous sign meant. And don't even get me started on how the truly eastbound Long Island Expressway should really be termed northbound, because parent Interstate 95 is actually a north-south interstate, which sort of demands I-495 also be one. Oh the politics and strange bedfellows of arterial interstate highways.

Finally we leave the BQE and its mish mash of "Bigloop" braced Deskey poles and assorted replacements. Yes, that same van is still ahead of us and going our way, unless he intends to swing toward the Midtown Tunnel bound LIE, or even 48th Street. Otherwise we may be stuck with him all the way to Fresh Meadows. To be continued once you visit the Long Island Expressway section, to the page that picks up from here. This whole scene has changed vastly, for the most part only in the last couple of years as I write this in 2018, due to the Kosciuszko Bridge replacement, which included of course all the downgrade we just came off of. Google Earth views from 2017 show no overhead directionals at all, just smaller temporary substitutes while construction work continued.