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Photo Gallery: Woodhaven Blvd |
| For those already weary of the hills and curves, all they can do is mimic Ronald Reagan and grouse, "There you go again!" We look north from Myrtle Avenue where Woodhaven squeezes its 8-lane girth through the three Model-A/Great Depression era stoneface arched overpasses of the Jackie Robinson (ne: Interboro) Pkwy. The four center lanes go through the middle arch, while their four slave lanes pass through the flanking maws. All will merge back together south of Myrtle, although not for long, but long enough to take perhaps the most gut-wrenching, down-shifting S-curving slope that Woodsie has to offer. Just north of the JRP, the small turreted apartment house stands as an example of the wierded-out, spooky architecture that marks much of this road. For additional commentary, note the bullet hole riddled center median sign. |
| Woodhaven gives the relatively overpass poor Jackie Robinson a chance to truly strut some class stuff, as it vaults across its secondary road subordinate upon a rare triple arched viaduct. |
 Knocking around alongside the parkway is one of
the zillions of dismembered numbered avenues within Queens; 83rd
Avenue. This particular block, swinging in an arc from Myrtle
Avenue down a hill into Woodhaven, is no less strange than its
esteemed intersector. Its southern sidewalk is perched high above
the curbline, with considerable lengths of driveway separating
it from the roadbed. Most of the driveways were paved in Belgian
block, or what most would refer to as cobblestones. In at least
one house close to the corner, the owners decided to rip up those
blocks and replace them with hardtop. Looking east across Woodhaven,
another shortlived section of 83rd Avenue gets deadended by a
dark patch of green hiding the notorious Dead Tracks, which reside
several feet below in a gully, flanked themselves by Forest Park. |
| Those uprooted Belgian blocks did not go to waste, by the way. Directly across from that house, on the small plot of parklike greenery flanking the parkway, the retired and retread blocks enjoy a new life as garden accoutrements. |
© 2001, Jeff Saltzman.
