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Photo Gallery  Bklyn & Queens Expwys Index |
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One way sidestreets are fairly common, but you'll likely have
to look pretty darn hard to find any one way expressways other
than the Nassau Expressway west of the Van Wyck. The Nassau,
designated NY Route 878, was originally planned as part of Interstate
78, which in the end was never extended east of New Jersey. Among
the victims of the I-78 abortion were the never built Cross Brooklyn
Expwy, that was supposed to feed into the Nassau where it meets
Cross Bay Blvd and the Belt Pkwy in Howard Beach. Also cut off
at the I-78 pass was the more northerly Clearview Expwy, which
was supposed to cut a swath south through Eastern Queens from
its present terminus at Hillside Avenue, eventually linking with
the Nassau in Laurelton. Now the Clearview settles for triple
digit status as a foster child of the I-95 system and the totally
orphaned Nassau limps along as a triple digit NYer. If being a one way Expressway isn't enough of a humiliation, the Nassau also gets stopped at grade crossing traffic lights several times, once it passes JFK Airport. One can't really even tell exactly where it begins, ends or middles! It is a truly confused highway. It would be a truly confused secondary road or sidestreet as well. Most drivers heading east for the Van Wyck from the Belt don't even know they are on an Expressway. They think it's just a very long ramp. The Nassau howver is not without good points. At least west of Rockaway Blvd., it never has traffic tie-ups; least not that I've ever seen. The bad points are led by the fact that it takes most eastbounders into the horrendous northbound Van Wyck. |
© 1999, Jeff Saltzman.
