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Would-be Bushwick Expressway
West of Cross Bay Boulevard

Bushwick/Cross Brooklyn Expressways

1
 It's late Friday afternoon. Where are all the eastbounders coming from Brooklyn via the I-78 Bushwick Expressway? Well, part of the fun of imagining realistically what the Bushwick might have looked like as it prepared to pass on its interstate shield to the eastbound Nassau Expressway, is to envision what kind of traffic tie-ups it might be subject to.

2
 Zooming in a little closer, we now see what's been holding everybody up. The unmistakable flashing lights of an emergency vehicle just before the fork in the road indicates an accident was blocking the dear old Bushy, which by the time I changed lenses has mostly been cleared, allowing a rush of vehicles to finally escape. In unvirtual reality that fork divides those headed for the Nassau or Conduit Bouelvard's Conduit Avenue continuation, from those to the far left heading for Cross Bay Boulevard on what could've been the Bushster's last eastbound exit.

3
 Westbounders are snuggled together convoy style as they head for East New York. I don't like disparaging any neighborhoods. It's not what I envision my site being about, but when one thinks of all the neighborhoods that claimed decimation because highways were rammed through their hearts, what the hell was East New York and Bushwick's excuses? Today, both neighborhoods continue to struggle to find economic and social rejuvenation. Bushwick especially was hard hit by uncontrolled rioting and arson during the July 1977 blackout and to this day has not recovered. East New York managed to decay without the dubious benefit of any riots. I would tend to think that today, should the Bushwick finally get plowed up the Conduit Blvd, Atlantic Avenue and hence through the Bushwick Avenue corridors, it could scarcely damage the surrounding area any more than it already has killed itself. With a woefully underutilized railroad right of way standing by for the use of a Cross-Brooklyn Expressway further to the southwest, I don't see why anything but pure money should prevent the building of one of these interstates to give the heart of Brooklyn, at long last, some real highway access. Makes a hell of alot more sense to me than the ridiculous and overtly prejudicial Skydrain...I mean Skytrain, that will indeed do irreparable damage to the hard working, vibrant, green and grassy, mostly minority southern Queens Van Wyck corridor, that has struggled so hard and mightily to keep itself from an ignimony and fate not far from the level of these two aforementioned Brooklyn areas.

4
 Now that I've finished lecturing, let's take a more enlightened look at what's going down around yon fork in the road. A white and navy blue banded city bus heads for eastern parts unknown, most likely for a South Conduit Avenue route. Eastbound Linden Blvd. merged with Conduit just beyond the blue arcing walkbridge in the background, much as the two never built expressways likely would have. Vise Versa, the westbounders will choose between Linden to the left or Conduit to the right once the walkbridge is passed. The large grassy center median was to have carried the Bushwick roadbed westward. Shot 10/99.

© 1999, Jeff Saltzman.