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Looking west from 14th Avenue. The massive, if rather
short, Whitestone Expwy, one of the few 8 lane highways within
NYC, barrels westward toward it's ultimate destiny of leading
into either the southbound Van Wyck, westbound Northern Blvd,
or anyway bound Grand Central. The Whitestone used to be a bucolic,
puny, woodie-laden parkway, in essense, just a shuttle spur linking
the Cross Island Pkwy with the Grand Central Pkwy. It also served
as the access ramp for the Bronx-bound Whitestone Bridge. It
was part of Robert Moses' great "Circumferential Parkway"
meant to ring Brooklyn and Queens, along with the present day
Cross Island, Laurelton & Belt Pkwys to the south, the last
leg of the Grand Central running through northern Queens, and
the Brooklyn Queens/Gowanus Expwys, which eventually serve to
connect the Grand Central with the Belt. The apartment buildings in the background are wedged between Parsons Blvd, one of the main drags of the Whitestone neighborhood, and the expressway. Parsons winds around so much, like a drunk boa constrictor, you can lose track of what direction you're travelling in. Except for it being cut of by both Kissena Park and the Long Island Expwy, at the one section where it is not very busy, it would've been one of the longest contiguous sidestreets in Queens. Unseen to the right a ways, is the College Point neighborhood. There used to be a little Flushing Airport on the right side. The land it covered is still largely underdeveloped, with government agencies like the State Motor Vehicles Dept. gradually filling the voids. An architecturally award winning facility of the New York Times company, is a few blocks west, on the right side. Shot in the Spring 1998. |
| This view is eastbound, from the other side of 20th Avenue, taken 2/99. Some of the recent buildings that filled the great Flushing Airport void are visible on the left. |
