Photo Gallery: Sidestreets/Neighborhoods || Long Island Motor Pkwy
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73rd Avenue approaching 199th Street in Fresh Meadows, a few
blocks from my home. The overhead traffic light is hooked to a utility pole via a single-guy type mast. Holding traffic lights to such poles are the only times these masts are used in NYC. The yellow sign on the overpass and the diamond shaped yellow sign to the right, are to warn truckers that the overpass has only 12' 2" clearance. Didn't stop alot of them from trying, as the numerous chips in the overpass facade attest to. One 18 wheeler that got crammed in there a year ago, tied the whole neighborhood up in knots for hours. The overpass was built in 1926 for the Long Island Motor Pkwy, part of a 45 mile long private raceway and toll road, built by the Vanderbilts in stages from around 1905 on, for both their personal joyrides as well as hoped for profit, from eastern Long Island where they maintained estates, to Flushing. Known by some as the Vanderbilt Motor Pkwy, it was later opened to the public, but became outmoded quickly, and most of it was closed to vehicular traffic after a few years. |
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The remaining Queens section was used as a bikepath, running
from Alley Pond Park in Douglaston, through Kissena Park in Flushing.
The Clearview Expwy. mercilessly cut the Flushing section off
and that section, which includes this overpass, have deteriorated
dramatically since. The forest has reclaimed the Cunningham Park section, from the Clearview to Francis Lewis, and is fast at work trying to reclaim the stretch that runs alongside 199th Street, from Francis Lewis, to the Long Island Expwy. That many feet continue to tred this section, due to the lack of any other sidewalk there, is all that has prevented nature from full reclamation. Those who look, will see the original concrete posts that held the roadside barriers. The stretch east of the Clearview, through Alley Pond Park, remains a relatively well maintained neighborhood treasure. Update 11/98: The NYC Parks Dept. recently rehabilitated and painted this bridge, as well as it's crumbling neighbors on Francis Lewis Blvd and Hollis Terrace. UPDATE 11/99: The bikepath has since been completely rehabbed into a repaved and contiguous path all the way east to Winchester Blvd. |