This is one of the last city sections of the LIE to be transmographied,
morphed, Doctor Who'ed, zapped, silly-puttied, dredged, reinvented,
reengineered, reworked and transsexualized into something utterly
unrecognizable from what it once was.
This section passes through the netherworld between Queens neighborhoods
Maspeth and Elmhurst. A decade ago it was a bland 6 lane highway,
with bigloops twinlampers gracing the center median. Now it's...well
look. It certainly is what it is, although most commuters trying
to figure out when they should be to the right, center or left,
haven't yet quite figured out exactly what kind of "it"
it is.
The terrain through which this section passes is just as incomprehensable
as the road. High hills to the right would make one think that
the LIE is in an open cut ditch, yet those living or working in
the valley to the left look up to what they think is a raised
above grade-level, semi elevated highway. The LIE has just passed
over one railroad, serving Conrail, which runs within a gully
far below the right-hand hills that follow it. Another railroad,
a branch of the LIRR on higher ground, will soon pass over the
highway.
The rightmost lanes herd everyone headed for either Woodhaven
or Queens Blvds, but eventually merge again with the main roadway.
The highrise office tower in the background just off the center,
is the Lefrak City tower. Actually, that area has at least 3 Lefrak
office towers and which is called what, I have no idea.
The spindly looking walkbridge is a great hangout for drunks.
You've all heard of breakaway lightpoles, made to give way with
minimum resistance if a vehicle crashes into them? Well, I believe
this is a breakaway walkbridge, made to keel over if a too-tall
truck rams it.
Just past the walkbridge, on the left, used to stand two ancient,
huge natural gas storage facilities, known to millions of commuters
simply as "The Elmhurst Tanks", as they were usually
referred to as by radio traffic reporters. They were finally brought
down a couple of years ago, but not without some effort dispensed
to get them designated landmarks,
Just prior to this point, the LIE passed over 74th & 80th Streets,
a couple of local neighborhood lanes deemed worthy enough to pass
from one side of the LIE to the other. Both share a general disability
of many numbered streets, roads and avenues in Queens. They are
cut off, dead ended, or otherwise fragmented into many discontiguous
pieces, from one end of the borough, to the other. 74th Street
gets one other moment in the sun, in a segment further north in
Woodside, where it's known to millions and zillions of Queens
subway riders as part of the massive 74th Street-Broadway intersection
for the Flushing and Jamaica subway lines.
