40 THE QUEENS COURIER • LIVING IN HOWARD BEACH • MAY 17, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
living in howard beach
A colonial road in Queens grows into a traffi c machine
BY THE OLD TIMER
editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com
@RidgewoodTimes
Many drivers and commuters complain
about the traffi c on Woodhaven
and Cross Bay boulevards, the 10-mile
artery running between Elmhurst and
the Rockaways. While we can’t make the
traffi c go away, we can tell you that the
roadways have quite an interesting background.
We start with Woodhaven Boulevard,
which was fi rst laid out in April 1668 as
the “South Meadow Road,” from the village
of Newtown which was centered at
the present-day intersection of Grand
Avenue and Queens Boulevard. It was
used by the villagers to go to and from
the meadows at Jamaica Bay, where they
grazed their livestock during the spring,
summer and fall.
At about 1850, the road became known
as Trotting Course Lane, taking its name
from the Centerville Race Track (also
known for a time as the Eclipse Course),
located on the east side of the road, south
of what is today Rockaway Boulevard.
In 1889, Trotting Course Lane was
renamed Flushing Avenue— yes, as in
the Flushing Avenue that, at that time,
ran through Bushwick and Newtown
and continues to be a critical connection
between present-day Brooklyn and
Queens.
Naturally, confusion resulted from having
two roads with the same name only a
few miles apart, and by 1898—the same
year Queens became part of New York
City—the former Trotting Course Lane
and South Meadow Road took on the title
Woodhaven Avenue, adopting the name
of the community through which it runs.
Th e city later realigned a portion of
Woodhaven Boulevard through Glendale,
straightening it to make it safer. A portion
of the old road remained, and was given
the old Trotting Course Lane title.
Segments of Trotting Course Lane
remain today in Glendale and Rego
Park, and at the entrance to the Forest
Park Crescents co-op building off Union
Turnpike.
Crossing the bay
Meanwhile, in 1918, the city decided
to build a road across Jamaica Bay
to Rockaway Beach, then connect this
new road to Woodhaven Boulevard and
Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park. Th e work
started on the road, which was to be 100
feet wide, in October 1921.
Because of the nature of the terrain, it
was necessary to drive numerous steel
and reinforced concrete piles on each side
of the proposed road as a bulkhead. Th en,
using suction dredges, sand was scooped
up from the bay and poured in between
the bulkheads to form the road.
The project also included new
water mains laid from the Ridgewood
Reservoir—then used as part of the city’s
water supply—to the peninsula.
It was also necessary to build two large
bridges across sections of the bay—the
North Channel Bridge, a fi xed span linking
Howard Beach and Broad Channel;
and the Cross Bay Bridge, a four-lane
drawbridge between Broad Channel and
the Rockaway Peninsula.
Th e total cost of this project, when it
was completed in 1925, was just under $7
million. It opened on Oct. 26 of that year
and was named Cross Bay Boulevard.
As Queens developed in the early
20th century and more residents moved
in, the city also worked to improve the
entire stretch of Woodhaven Avenue—
and subsequently changed the name to
Woodhaven Boulevard.
As a separate project, but part of an
overall construction plan, the city widened
Woodhaven Boulevard from 100 to
150 feet from Queens Boulevard south to
the new road at a cost of $1.5 million.
Th e project led to a bit of a rebellion
among Glendale and Woodhaven residents,
who believed that it benefi tted people
who lived in Manhattan and not local
residents.
In all, the combined Cross Bay and
Woodhaven boulevards shortened
the distance between Brooklyn and
Manhattan and Rockaway Beach by about
10 miles.
The expressway that wasn’t
Th e boulevards quickly became the
main north-south artery through western
and southern Queens, and in 1941,
the New York City Planning Department
proposed developing an express highway—
a forerunner to the modern
expressway—along the length of the route
from Queens Boulevard to the Rockaway
Peninsula. Aft er the U.S. entered World
War II, those plans were scrapped.
Following the war, Queens did get
a north-to-south expressway: the Van
Wyck and Whitestone expressways, running
from the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge
to what would later become Kennedy
Airport.
Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards
were spared a project that would have
displaced thousands of residents and
changed the very face of the communities
through which the boulevards run.
Drivers through the years have relied
on the roads to reach not just the beaches
of Rockaway but also a host of other
historic spots, including Forest Park; the
long-defunct St. Anthony’s Hospital in
Woodhaven, once a pioneer in cardiovascular
and pulmonary medicine; and
Aqueduct Racetrack, located about a halfmile
east of the boulevards off Rockaway
Boulevard.
Further improvements
As time when on, the roads were renovated
periodically. A Works Progress
Administration project during the Great
Depression resulted in the reconfi guration
and straightening of the boulevard
between Park Lane South and Atlantic
Avenue. Overpasses were also constructed
above the Long Island Rail Road’s
Montauk branch in Glendale and Atlantic
Avenue, below which the LIRR’s Atlantic
Terminal line runs.
In 1970, the drawbridge connecting
Broad Channel and the Rockaway
Peninsula was replaced with the Cross
Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, a six-lane,
fi xed bridge operated by the Triborough
Bridge and Tunnel Authority (later the
MTA Bridges and Tunnels Division).
While the new bridge an upgrade, it came
with toll booths that prove controversial
to this day.
Th e Cross Bay Bridge remains the only
intra-borough toll crossing in the city,
meaning that drivers coming from one
Queens neighborhood have to pay to
travel to another Queens neighborhood.
For years, Rockaway and Broad Channel
residents were exempt from the toll, but
in 2010, the MTA— facing a fi nancial crisis—
began charging those drivers, though
the rate was discounted.
Meanwhile, on the north side of the
Broad Channel, the North Channel
Bridge fell into disrepair during the 1980s
to such an extent that a standard renovation
wouldn’t be enough to save it. Th e
city replaced the span in 1988 with the
Joseph P. Addabbo Bridge, named for the
late congressman who represented the
area and also the father of current State
Sen. Joseph P. Addabbo Jr.
Most recently, both Woodhaven and
Cross Bay Boulevards underwent a different
kind of change with the introduction
of Select Bus Service that offi cially
launched in November 2017. Th e SBS
system, which took over the Q52 and Q53
bus lines, includes dedicated bus lanes in
each direction and reconstructed, longer
bus stops where customers pay their fare
before boarding.
Th e SBS system came with much consternation
from drivers and business
owners alike over congestion, lost parking
spots and other inconveniences.
Time will tell, of course, whether the
SBS on Woodhaven and Cross Bay
Boulevards helps make it easier for southern
Queens residents to get around more
quickly.
Source: Ridgewood Times,
Nov. 20, 2014
* * *
Share your history with us by emailing
editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com (subject:
Our Neighborhood: Th e Way it Was) or
write to Th e Old Timer, Ridgewood Times,
38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. Any
mailed pictures will be carefully returned
to you upon request.
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