WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES AUGUST 27, 2020 21
The other Queens subway to the World’s Fair
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Old Timer’s Note — We’re indebted
this week to Joseph Raskin, one
of the city’s foremost transit
historians and former MTA director
of governmental relations, for this
week’s story about the World’s Fair IND,
a special subway line in Queens during
the 1939-40 World’s Fair.
Two World’s Fairs have been held on
the grounds of what is now Flushing
Meadows Corona Park, in 1939-40 and
1964-65. Given their continuing service
past the park (and possibly helped by a
catchy song advertising subway service
to the 1964-65 Fair), most people will
think that public transit access to the
Fairs came only from the still-existing
services to the north of the park, MTA
New York City Transit’s Flushing Line
along Roosevelt Avenue and the Long
Island Rail Road’s Port Washington
Line.
Another route to the 1939-40 Fair
came from the south. In 1937, the
World’s Fair Corporation (George
McAneny, the corporation’s fi rst president,
played a major role in the subway
system’s initial expansion in 1913) requested
that the New York City Board
of Estimate fund improvements to the
transit system that would improve access
to the fairgrounds.
One project the World’s Fair Corporation
called for was a spur line off
the Independent City-Owned Subway
System’s (IND) Queens Boulevard Line,
which was extended from Roosevelt
Avenue-Jackson Heights in April 1936.
It would run from the 71st-Continental
Avenue Station, through the Jamaica
Subway Yard and along what is now
the northern extension of the Van
Wyck Expressway to a terminal south
of Horace Harding Boulevard (today’s
Horace Harding Expressway, the Long
Island Expressway’s service road) by
Mount Hebron Cemetery.
The Board of Estimate approved
the plan in early 1938, and the World’s
Fair Railroad was built by the P.T. Cox
Corporation Company at grade level.
Piles and landfi ll were placed to enable
service over the swampy land along the
route.
The terminal at Horace Harding
Boulevard was diff erent than what had
been seen in the subway system until
that point, and would still be unique
today, built in Art Deco style, keeping
with the World’s Fair‘s architecture.
The New York Board of Transportation
(BOT) operator of the IND (later the
entire subway system), predecessor
of the New York City Transit Authority,
had an exhibit, similar to what
would be seen decades later at the New
York Transit Museum, explaining the
The World’s Fair Railroad running through an area that is now the Van Wyck Expressway.
Photo courtesy of the Queens Borough Public Library, Archives, William J. Rugen Collection
expansion of the transit system and its
impact on the city.
As part of the World’s Fair Corporation’s
plan, work also took place on
the Flushing Line and the Long Island
Rail Road’s Port Washington Line. The
Willets Point Boulevard Station was
expanded and moved westward to its
current location (the original Manhattan
bound platform still exists, beyond
the east end of the current platform);
express service on the Flushing line
began.
The Passarelle Bridge, running from
the subway station to the park, opened
and the LIRR opened a new station at
Willets Point to provide access to the
Fair.
Service on the World’s Fair Railroad
began on April 30, 1939, mostly provided
by the GG line, supplemented
by some E trains. A double fare was
charged, with riders being charged to
exit at the terminal, and being charged
10 cents to board at Horace Harding
Boulevard. The line didn’t operate in
the time the World’s Fair was closed.
Over seven million used the Railroad
during the 1939 season; 5 million riders
used it in the shorter 1940 season.
The World’s Fair closed on Oct. 27,
1940. IND service ended the next day;
the line’s infrastructure would remain
in place for some time, although the BOT
sought its removal. However, Queens
elected offi cials and community groups
wanted to reopen and extend the line.
Borough President George U. Harvey
raised the issue prior to the Fair’s opening.
In 1937, he noted the extension as a
means of promoting the growth of the
Flushing area. John H. Delaney, the
longtime BOT Chairman disagreed:
“We recommended a temporary spur
from our yards between Kew Gardens
and Forest Hills because a permanent
line would be useless aft er two years …
The only thing planned for the park is
a stadium which would seat a maximum
of 8,000 persons where an occasional
track meet or concert could be held during
the summer months. This would
mean maintaining a permanent line
for traffi c, which would be slight…”
Councilman Hugh Quinn discussed
the matter with Delaney at a Finance
Committee meeting in December 1939.
Quinn sought an extension to College
Point and Whitestone. “To me, it seems
a waste of money to demolish the line
if there is any possibility of … building
extensions to College Point and
Whitestone.”
BOT capital plans from 1929 to 1945
called for a spur line from the Flushing
line to Whitestone and College Point via
149th Street and 11th Avenue to 122nd
Street.
Delaney again disagreed: “It is
not suitably located for extension to
Whitestone and College Point. It was
built superfi cially and wouldn’t stand
up. It is only a temporary railroad
constructed at the lowest possible cost
… Rapid transit ought to be built out to
Bayside and then through to College
Point and Whitestone. That has been
our plan for seven or eight years and
I am all for it if anyone can get us the
money to do it with.”
The neighborhoods to the north and
east of the World’s Fair were beginning
to grow. They would have benefi ted
from the extension. Queens College had
opened in 1937, and would have been
helped by direct subway service. Paul
Klapper, the president of the college,
also spoke in support.
Parks Commissioner Robert Moses
backed Delaney. Moses had opposed
building the railroad in the first
place, and wanted the land to build
a permanent park and the eventual
northern extension of the Van Wyck
Expressway.
Delaney and Moses’ viewpoint won
out, and the Board of Estimate authorized
removal of the World’s Fair
Railroad on Dec. 19, 1940. A similar
extension of the Queens Boulevard
Line was not considered for the 1964-65
World’s Fair.
Despite the amount of riders that
made use of the World’s Fair Railroad,
the Flushing and Port Washington
Lines and bus service were found to
be suffi cient.
Old Timer’s Note — Our thanks again
to Mr. Raskin for his wonderful and
thorough retelling of the World’s Fair
Railroad. One wonders how Queens
might look today had the city went
against the advice of Robert Moses —
who, in his 44 years in city and state
government, built 627 miles of expressways
and parkways, but did very little
to expand public transportation.
The extension of the World’s Fair Railroad
to College Point and Whitestone is
just one of a number of unbuilt subway
projects that Mr. Raskin chronicles in
his acclaimed book, “The Routes Not
Taken: A Trip Through New York City’s
Unbuilt Subway System.” It’s available
for purchase on Amazon and at local
book retailers — and you can also borrow
it from the Queens Borough Public
Library.
* * *
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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