I don’t think I’ve mentioned the magnificent stone bridge that takes the NY Connecting Railroad over Queens Boulevard in Woodside. The NYCR, constructed in 1917 when the Hell Gate Bridge was, runs from the Oak Point freight yards in Hunts Point, Bronx, southwest through Port Morris, south through Randalls Island, southeast across the Hell Gate Bridge, and then generally southerly through Steinway, Woodside, Elmhurst, Middle Village and Glendale, to Fresh Pond yards where it meets a junction with the LIRR and New York and Atlantic railroads. Canadian Pacific and CSX freights generally make this run during the week, though there are occasional runs by the Providence and Worcester as well. Some mail trains run late at night.
This bridge is one of the original magnificent structures to be built after Queens Boulevard was widened after the Queensboro Bridge was opened in 1909. Early on, some of its present traffic lanes were given over to trolley tracks, but these were removed in the 1930s and Queens Boulevard was on its way to being the pedal to the metal Boulevard of Death.
I have chronicled and walked Queens Boulevard often; its western end is dominated by the Flushing Line Viaduct, while there are several innovative structures eat of the elevated, built over a 50 year span from roughly 1915 through 1965. The Connecting Railroad’s stone bridges are mostly invisible to the public, as it runs in an open cut in its southern reaches before going elevated much of the way from Queens Boulevard north.
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10/19/21