MANY of New York City’s longest and most important roads begin in inconspicuousness and humble spots. Metropolitan Avenue is one of the lengthiest routes between Brooklyn and Queens. It was first built in 1815, give or take a year, as a toll road and was known along much of its length as the Williamsburg and Jamaica Turnpike until the mid-1800s, when it was bestowed its current name. It runs from the East River to Jamaica Avenue and along the way, marks the southern limit of Newtown Creek, and runs through Lutheran/All-Faiths and St. John’s Cemeteries, as well as Forest Park. It’s the spine of several communities — Williamsburg, Middle Village (so named because it was midway between Williamsburg and Jamaica), and Kew Gardens, and forms the boundary line between Ridgewood and Maspeth.
Here’s the east end, in which it meets three other major routes: Kew Gardens Road, arriving from that neighborhood; Jamaica Avenue, soon to pass through its own neighborhood; and the Van Wyck Expressway, promoted by Robert Moses to an expressway in the 1950s; it has actually had three names over time: Van Wyck Avenue, Van Wyck Boulevard and Van Wyck Expressway. Some believe it is named for the first mayor of Greater New York, Robert Van Wyck, but I am doubtful of the claim.
These roads also converge at the Jamaica Van Wyck subway serving the E train, new of NYC’s newest subways, even though its extension opened in December 1989.
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2/9/25
3 comments
The question is, did he pronounce his own name “van WICK” or “van WIKE”?
He was quite proud of his Dutch heritage, and may even have pronounced it somewhat like “van WAKE,” an Anglicizing of how it would be pronounced in The Netherlands.
Dutchmen, Van Why-ck, orig. spelling Van Wijck
The rest of us, Van Wick as in John Wick
There is a small green space at the end of Metropolitan Avenue, outside the Jamaica Van Wyck subway station.
This park was completed a decade after the station.
Nice to have a small park with a flagpole marking the end of this very long road.