22 FEBRUARY 10, 2022 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
The expressway that almost was — and
some other scenes from Queens’ past
Photos courtesy of NYC Municipal Archives, republished with permission
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
We’re certain many of our
readers are familiar with
the Queens Boulevard
“freeway” through Elmhurst and Rego
Park, a short highway that runs under
Woodhaven Boulevard and the Long
Island Expressway.
The viaduct passes Queens Center
Mall, one of the busiest shopping centers
in America and, most certainly,
the most active mall in Queens. But
did you know that, at one point in
time, the city planned on converting
Queens Boulevard into one of the
borough’s fi rst expressways?
According to historians, the New
York City Planning Department began
eff orts in 1941 to construct what was
called the Queens Boulevard Express
Highway, covering eight miles from
the Queensboro Bridge to Hillside
Avenue. In the age of the automobile,
city planners saw the conversion as
important to keeping the city moving.
The plans would have included closing
off access to the boulevard from
most side streets and lowering the
roadway at important intersections.
The city constructed the freeway in
1941 below Woodhaven Boulevard and
what was then Horace Harding Boulevard,
and had planned on building
similar freeways for the length of the
“Express Highway.”
The freeway opened in 1941, and the
image at the top of this story shows
crews painting solid white lines along
three of the six lanes. But the highway
was never completed, as the project
was scrapped once the United States
Thousands of Queens residents have passed through the halls of Forest
Hills High School through the decades. This undated photo shows the
exterior of the institution of higher learning located at 67-01 110th St.
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