CLOSING out 2022 (how long can FNY go on?) In the late 19th and early 20th Century, a trolley line connected Flushing and Jamaica, running originally through the farms and fields of Fresh Meadows. Service on this line was ended in 1937. In short order, the tracks were pulled up, the weeds paved over, a center median added, and 164th Street became the fast and furious stretch we know it as today between Flushing Cemetery and the Grand Central Parkway. In this photo, the rails have been broken up and will soon be carted off.
South of Grand Central Parkway the trolley line veered off 164th and rode on its own right of way to a terminal on Jamaica Avenue at about 160th Street. In the decades since, most of this trolley route has been either eliminated or hidden pretty well, but the four-lane width of 164th Street is a legacy of the route. There was one lane of traffic on the east side of the street, with the rest taken up by trolley tracks. For more information see Stephen Meyers’ book, Lost Trolleys of Queens and Long Island.
In the 1950s, Horace Harding Boulevard was converted into the west end of the Long Island Expressway, with its service roads retaining the Horace Harding name, after an obscure commissioner and friend of traffic czar Robert Moses.
Photo: Al Ponte’s Time Machine
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12/31/22