Construction to build the upper deck of the Long Island Expressway to traverse the Brooklyn Queens Expressway interchange began in 1966. Both arterial highways were being upgraded at that point, for a total price that you probably couldn't build an off ramp for these days. The upper deck above us allowed for through traffic between the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and Manhattan to the west and all points east of Maurice Avenue to cleanly bypass all the tumult inherent with the interchange between the two mighty expressways. One distinct design feature of the upper deck is the asymmetric centering of the giant green, ribbed steel joists. The upper deck seems to lean to the north side just a bit, overhanging the edges of the support pillars more than on the south side to the right.

Maurice Avenue is the next exit. I have no idea what Maurice it was named for. I'll leave that to my historian friends. What does seem clear is that Maurice Avenue ran a lot longer at one point than it does now. It was basically renamed 51st Avenue over what would've been it's most northeasterly stretch after passing 69th Street. Much of its run between the Long Island Expressway and 69th Street is dominated by the Mount Zion Cemetery, a large, old Jewish burial ground on its west flank. South of the LIE it is basically industrial. Mount Zion is where many victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirt Waist Factory blaze were interred.

Midway through the LIE's double decked section, the symmetry improves in the positioning of the upper deck's joists. The plain vanilla, stubby lighting standards perched on the support pillars replaced Donald Deskey SLECO standards some time prior to when I shot these. The way they lined the lower deck on their little perches always made me think of the Hall of Fame collection of busts of famous American leaders up in the Bronx.

When speaking of the Long Island Expressway, it might be more appropriate to say Hall of Infamy instead of Hall of Fame. Anyway, the lower deck's "famous busts" tend to light up earlier than those sitting in the sunlight. Spending one's life in the shade will do that to a photo cell switch. Maurice Avenue starts getting a little antsy at this point, wants to make sure you don't forget to get off.

Just beyond the Maurice Avenue Exit Only sign, do you notice the little green marker for 58th Street? That's just letting you know you're crossing over 58th Street, which in its own right is a major thoroughfare going all the way up from here, past the BQE and Queens Boulevard into Woodside. It even traverses Broadway, but north of that it's just another little one way side street. Still an impressive run for any street designated a Street in Queens. Such importance is usually the preserve of Avenues. Further to the east of this point, 65th Place and 69th Street enjoy similar Avenue level status. Like Maurice Avenue, 58th Street is flanked by cemeteries and oh is it flanked. 58th Street is a veritable Avenue of the Dead. Not only is it flanked on the east by the same Mount Zion Cemetery that stretches over to Maurice, but an even longer stretch of 58th Street is dominated to the west by giant Calvary Cemetery, a huge Roman Catholic burial ground dating back well over a century. That cemetery not only crosses both sides of the Long Island Expressway, but indeed the BQE as well, all the way north to Queens Boulevard. 58th Street was lucky in having gotten the relatively quiet corner of Calvary. It's buddy down the Boulevard, a scant half block to the west of the cemetery, 50th Street, wasn't as lucky. That corner of Queens Boulevard and 50th Street was the scene of controversy a couple of decades back in 2001, when plans to build a high school there met with a lot of very justified opposition. The then borough president, the late Claire Shulman, got the protests totally wrong. The main concern was forcing teenagers to not only cross humongous Queens Boulevard, which was nicknamed the Boulevard of Death at the time for its many pedestrian fatalities, but crossing it at arguably it's most dangerous point, just east of the treacherous multi-directional confluence of ultra busy Greenpoint Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue, 48th Street and Queens Boulevard. Her response to the protests was, "Who's going to be bothered? The dead people in the cemetery?" Typical response of a tone deaf, isolated suburban liberal Democrat who can't be bothered listening to working class parents. End of story, the school was never built. The property the Bored of Uneducation and Shulman tried to grab via eminent domain, then the site of a bankrput Stevens Appliance store, ended up going to the better heeled Steven's competitor PC Richard and Sons, whom the city had so voraciously tried to take the parcel away from. To this day as I rewrite this in 2018, PC Richard is still there and the dead people a half block away rest easy.

At this point, the upper deck starts to look like its about to crush us as it descends down to the point where the two decks merge. Maurice Avenue, ever anxious for company is hoping to pick off claustrophobic drivers who've had enough of being under the upper deck.

By this point, I think I'd be a nervous wreck if I were driving a tall vehicle like an 18 wheel tractor trailer. Such a shame to come this far, see daylight at the end and bolt for Maurice Avenue anyway.

We're now committed to reaching the confluence of the two decks. Along the right side, twin masted Deskey SLECOs still lined the edge. The lower of each standard's two masts illuminate the Maurice Avenue exit ramp. Those Deskeys are gone as I write this in 2018, replaced by plain vanilla standards hooked up the same way. The McDonalds in the distance still survives.

And whew, we are finally out from under the shadows and can breath easy.

These shots were all taken in August 2001, shortly before the 9-11 attacks. The adjacent New Calvary Cemetery inters many of the World Trade Center victims.