Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

BQE South toward 65th Place in Woodside
Photo Gallery: Brooklyn Queens Expwy.

BQE South toward 65th Place in Woodside

The short spance between the Queens Blvd. and 65th Place overpasses, heading south. 65th Place is an exception to one of NYC's unwritten norms, as far as streetnames go. In outer boroughs like Queens, there's a general pecking order among streets, somewhat denoted by their designations. At the top, of course, are the limited access highways. Below them, the major secondary roads are usually called Boulevards, occassionally Parkways. Below them, usually grouped together in numerical bunches, are Avenues, Roads and Drives. Then come the "Streets" and occassionally grouped with a run of numerical Streets, are shorter, more inconcequential spurs, called Place or Lane. Most of these latter two run for only a block or two. It's rare that a Place will ever see a traffic signal, let alone anything more, but good ole 65th Place has wrested a bevy of goodies for itself, in the heart of Woodside, Queens. It runs for more than a couple of blocks, has traffic signals, takes in exit traffic from an expressway, has itself a classy expressway overpass and a boffo high volume intersection with 10 lane wide Queens Blvd. It's a relatively major neighborhood thoroughfare. A long, long time ago, when the streetnumbering first took place, someone, somewhere in whatever passed for a DOT then, must've envisioned a much more subservient future for this stretch of asphalt.
Note thew rusty lamppost in the center median. It is undoubtably one of the late 50's originals, that once wore Westinghouse cuplights. Somehow it survived the SLECO Bigloop era and the onslaught of newer types, exemplified by the trussarmed poles following the overpass. Shot in the spring 1998.

© 1998, Jeff Saltzman.