Flushing Ave. at 55th Street: Maspeth Photo Gallery: Flushing Avenue

Above, looking south down Flushing Avenue at 55th Street. Industry has held the upper hand along Flushing since leaving 59th Street and embarking upon Flushing's little highway fantasy. Now, the residential take back the field for a while, at least until Metropolitan Avenue a couple of blocks ahead. That is pretty much the way it goes in mixed zone neighborhoods such as Maspeth. To the right, the view west down 55th Street. Businesses dominate the block, but clapboard walkup homes can be seen in the background. A highly unusual pair of bedfellow neighboring lampposts for a numbered side street stand here; an extended braced mast "Bigloop" SLECO, almost never seen on lesser roads, even in commercial areas, let alone residential, and the sharply angled mastarm of the pole by the truck, which is just flat out rare in most areas, but fairly prolific in this mini rust belt from Maspeth through Greenpoint. The braced Bigloop appears quite a few times along Flushing Avenue's mini expressway, bolstering any claim it might make to actual arterial highway status. Another sharp angled mastarm can be glimpsed futher down the block. Most of them slip into a little "cup holder" bracket which is attached to the pole, as are their rounded cousins, the "Quarterloops", rather than being directly bracketed to the pole in one piece, but there are directly bracketed variants, mostly seen on a couple of highways, like the Henry Hudson. Below, the view north, with the LIRR freight spur, 56th Street and numerous braced Bigloops in the background. The unusual industrial building through which the spur runs in on the right. The express walkway begins here and has no egress point for at least three blocks. Shot July 14, 2001.

© 2001, Jeff Saltzman. All rights reserved.