Long Island Expressway (Horace Harding Expressway) Photo Gallery   Expressways of Brooklyn & Queens

Traversing all of Long Island west of the forks, from Riverhead in the east, down into the Queens Midtown Tunnel leading to Manhattan, the legendary Long Island Expressway has long been touted as the world's longest parking lot. In truth however, at least in my opinion and experience, the Long Island Expressway, commonly called LIE, is far from being the worst for traffic in New York City. While the acronym LIE is certainly apropo at times, since its frequent traffic tie-ups do put the lie to the LIE being an "Express" way, I think the monstrous Cross-Bronx Expressway, the northbound Bruckner Expressway leading into the New England Thruway, Van Wyck Expressway between Kew Gardens and JFK Airport, and the horrible Gowanus stretch of the BQE in Brooklyn are much worse. Although a triple-digit part of the I-95 system, the Long Island Expressway is connected to the parent only indirectly, via the I-295 Clearview, up through the I-695 Throggs Neck, into the I-95 Bruckner. The LIE rumbles eastward through the Queens neighborhoods of Long Island City, Maspeth, Elmhurst, Rego Park, Forest Hills, Flushing Meadow Park, Central Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Oakland Gardens, Douglaston and Little Neck/Glen Oaks, before snaking through Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Prior to its completion, certain sections of the LIE had distinctive names, which may or may not still apply, depending on who you are and what maps you go by. West of Queens Boulevard in Rego Park, the LIE was, and might still be, officially the Queens-Midtown Expressway. Its oldest section, dating from the 1940's west of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway interchange, is very much still the Queens-Midtown. Between Queens Boulevard and the Nassau County line, the LIE was intended to be the Horace Harding Expressway, named for some turn-of-the previous century bigwig who was NOT related to President Warren Harding, who some believe had a black father who passed for white, and whose wife was a bit of a nutcase who relied on the advice of quack doctors and spiritualists, but those are stories for another venue. In any event, Harding's name didn't evaporate as the LIE carved its way through the right-of-way of old Horace Harding Boulevard in the 1950's. The outer lanes of the wide boulevard were kept on as the expressway service roads and they remain offically named Horace Harding Expressway.

• Eastbound From BQE to LIE Approaching 48th St.
• Looking West at Eastbound ramp from BQE to LIE.
• LIE westbound lower level heading for BQE.
• Drawings of LIE at BQE facing east.
• Looking south on 48th St. to the LIE.
• Both eastbound LIE levels from 48th St.
• LIE eastbound approaching Grand Ave.
• LIE eastbound past 74th Street.
• LIE eastbound at LIRR.
• LIE crossing Queens Blvd.
• LIE Passing through Lefrak/Park Cities
• LIE eastbound passing 98th Street
• LIE eastbound past 99th Street
• LIE eastbound passing over 108th St.
• LIE westbound passing over 108th St.
• LIE eastbound at Grand Central.
• LIE eastbound past Grand Central.
• LIE eastbound approaching Van Wyck Expwy.
• LIE westbound at Van Wyck.
• LIE at Main St.
• LIE eastbound at Kissena Blvd.
• LIE eastbound from Francis Lewis Blvd.
• LIE at Cloverdale Boulevard Walkbridge - Reconstruction 2001.
• LIE at Cloverdale looking east Towards Easthampton Blvd.
• LIE at Easthampton Blvd. east Towards Cross Island Pkwy.
• LIE at East Hampton Boulevard - Overpass Reconstruction 2001.
• LIE/Cross Island Interchange Reconstruction 2001.
• LIE/Cross Island Interchange Reconstruction 2001 Facing North.
• Steve Anderson's Photo: LIE in Suffolk County.

© 1998-2003, Jeff Saltzman. All rights reserved.