Forgotten New York

RETURN TO THE WEEDY GREEN YONDER: FLUSHING AIRPORT Part 2

Back in June 1999, I entered the grounds of the old Flushing Airport, and got as far as the mud, the ticks, the mosquitoes, and the head-high weeds and reeds would allow, and scraped the merest surface of what still lurks in the abandoned facility.

Now, Forgotten Fan Andy Hoffer has gone me one better and gone much further than I ever dared go. There’s all kinds of things lurking in Flushing Airport that haven’t been touched since the 1940s and possibly earlier. Andy endured some moments of uncomfortability (partially broke through the ice and spent the rest of the day pretty wet) but shot a few dozen terrific pictures, some of which we’ll present here.

All photos ©2001 Andy Hoffer

CAUTION: unauthorized entry here is trespassing. Cooperate with the authorities.

 

For years Linden Place was the main road leading into Flushing Airport. These days it hides its secrets behind a locked gate.

Note the round objects on the high tension wires, as well as the tower on the right side of the road.

 

Metal spheres were placed on the wires, as far as I know, to help keep any incoming small aircraft away. Obviously this method would be of help only during the day.

It should be noted that these wires are still very much active.

 

Red lights placed atop some of the telephone poles may also have served to warn aircraft away from the wires.

 

Towers on Linden Place near the hangars. Forgotten Fan Charles Gallo reports that these are transmitters for Microburst weather radar, part of the weather radar system for La Guardia Airport.

 

We are looking generally north from one of Flushing Airport’s two runways close by the two remaining hangars. The Whitestone Bridge is at right, and photographer Andy Hoffer’s footprints are in the foreground. The old runway is filled with snowfall and rainwater.

 

One of the streams, Mill Creek, that winds its way through Flushing Airport.

Flushing Airport had two remaining hangars, of varying decrepitude, that are still standing at Linden Place and 23rd Avenue. Only gravity and inertia kept these buildings standing, apparently.

 

Most of the roof and much of the walls have gone in this hangar. The window glass was knocked out decades ago.

Some views from inside one of the hangars.

Long-abandoned fire engine inside the hangar.

 

This shack is between the two hangars. I have been told it used to be a snack bar.

 

An abandoned tanker outside the hangar. Note the depth of the thin ice at this point. I’m kind of reminded of the scene in Alien where they find the wrcked alien space ship, complete with dead alien. No deceased trucker here though.

 

23rd Avenue, the thoroughfare that connects Flushing Airport with College Point, is seen in these photographs. 23rd Avenue is covered with reeds and weeds with only a slight clearing to navigate through.

 

Was College Point ever a German stronghold? The Steuben Society of America, founded 1919, is nearby.

For more abandoned urban scenes…

Julia Solis’ DarkPassage
Sean O’Boyle’s Modern Ruins 

2/4/2001

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