26 JULY 18, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
The expressway that wasn’t, and more
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
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.”
Workers painting lines on the Queens Boulevard “freeway” in Elmhurst.
Photos courtesy of NYC Municipal Archives, reprinted with permission
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 entered World War II,
and resources were devoted to the
war eff ort.
Of course, Queens would see
several expressways constructed in
the years aft er World War II ended.
Master planner Robert Moses
would construct the Long Island
Expressway beginning the 1950s
from the Queens Midtown Tunnel
to Riverhead, Long Island. Much of
the route in Queens would be built
along Horace Harding Boulevard.
The Queens Boulevard freeway
photo is just one of the hundreds
of thousands of photos in the New
York City Municipal Archives.
We’re fortunate to share many
more images from the archives
with you in this week’s column.
For more historical images of
Queens and the other boroughs,
visit http://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.
This image taken on Feb. 3, 1932 shows the exterior of
Maspeth’s P.S. 73, located at the intersection of 54th Avenue
and 71st Street.
Classic television fans might recognize this home located at
89-70 Cooper Ave. in the above photo taken around 1940.
Today, it’s called “the Archie Bunker House,” as the exterior of
the home fi gures prominently in the opening credits of “All in
the Family,” the 1970s sitcom.
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