30 JUNE 13, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Some soaring shots of Queens’ past
An aerial shot of the Rockaway Peninsula near Riis Park taken in the 1940s. Photos courtesy of NYC Municipal Archives, reprinted with permission
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Summer officially begins at
11:54 a.m. on Friday, June
21, and for many in Queens,
thoughts turn to spending days at
the beaches of Rockaway, stepping
over hot sand, basking in the even
hotter sun and finding cool relief
with a dip in the Atlantic.
We have two images of the
Rockaways from the past that
readers in Our Neighborhood
will enjoy. Both of these are aerial
shots taken during the 1940s.
The featured image above shows
the communities of Neponsit and
Belle Harbor. If you look carefully,
at the left, you can see the ovalshaped
parking lot of Jacob Riis
Park. One of the largest parking
lots in the borough, thousands
parked their vehicles there while
enjoying a day at the beach, which is
today part of the Gateway National
Recreational Area.
Just to the right of the parking
lot is the twin spires of the Marine
Parkway Bridge, the vertical lift
span connecting the Rockaway
Peninsula with Brooklyn. The
bridge would later be renamed for
former Mets manager Gil Hodges,
who lived in Brooklyn during
his playing years with the then-
Brooklyn Dodgers.
The next aerial photo we have
(below) shows what was once the
toll booth of the Cross Bay Bridge,
connecting Broad Channel and the
Rockaways. This image shows the
original drawbridge span during
the 1940s; 30 years later, it would
be replaced with a fixed span.
The toll remains on the Cross
Bay Bridge, although recently, it
was announced that all Queens
residents would be eligible for
rebates after crossing the span.
Perhaps someday, the toll — like
the drawbridge shown above —
will be a thing of the past.
Along with these great images
of the Rockaway’s past, the
opposite page has five more
amazing photos of Queens
from long ago. We again are
grateful to the NYC Municipal
Archives for allowing us access
to these incredible images. The
Archives are home to hundreds
of thousands of historic photos
and documents telling the story
of our city the way it was.
For more images like these,
visit nycma.lunaimaging.com/
luna/servlet.
* * *
If you have any remembrances
or old photographs of “Our
Neighborhood: The Way It
Was” that you would like to
share with our readers, please
write to the Old Timer, c/o
Ridgewood Times, 38-15 Bell
Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361, or
send an email to editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com. Any print
photographs mailed to us will
be carefully returned to you
upon request.
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