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Three views of Francis Lewis Blvd near Union Tpke within the
confines of Cunningham Park, in Fresh Meadows, Queens. The top
view taken in 1997 is looking south, on Francis Lewis (No true
Flushingite ever calls it "Boulevard"). This block
is between 73rd Avenue and Union Tpke. The bridge spanning Francis Lewis belongs to the western end of the Long Island Motor Pkwy Bikepath. The bridge is probably not much older than the Clearview Expwy, which so cruelly rendered it a bridge to nowhere in 1961, when the bikepath was cut in two, about 1 long block to the east. The entire bikepath between here and the Clearview was nearly completely overgrown with Cunningham forest. Except for scattered remains of the bikepath's cement railposts, or splotches of the Vanderbilt's old roadbed, you'd have never know it was there. The last, crumbling spur of the bikepath ran unseen to the right, parallel with Francis Lewis, alongside 199th Street, up to the Long Island Expwy, where it finally gave up the ghost before a public school playground, although bikers could still continue over grass and a walkbridge, across the expressway, into Kissena Corridor Park. |
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The second and third shots were taken 10/99 from the reconstructed
LIMP bridge. The long loopy line of Quarterloop twinmasters is
one of Francis Lewis's trademarks, throughout much of it's extraordinarily
long run. It stretches from the northern reaches of Whitestone,
down to the southeastern city line between Rosedale and Valley
Stream. Of course, every here and there is evidence of a Q-loop sent to the great street in the sky. Their replacements are likely to be breakaway crookarmed poles. Poetic justice, since the Q-loops themselves, replaced an older generation of crookarms. |
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The middle shot faces north and the last directly above us
faces south towards Union Tpke. At least a couple of trees have
gotten a jump on fall. Update 1/99: The bikepath bridge was in serious structural disrepair, when I originally shot it in 1997, but was recently rehabilitated. "Lunatic" cyclone fencing, to discourage nuts from dropping objects down onto motorists, was installed as part of the project. UPDATE 11/99: The crumbling bikepath on both sides of this bridge has recently been, cleared, repaved and even rerouted in sections, providing a contiguous path through Cunningham, clean over to the other side of the Clearview and beyond. |
