INGRAHAM’S MOUNTAIN

By PATRICK O’CONNOR
Forgotten NY guest post

Tucked in a remote corner of north Queens, north and east of 45^th Street and 19^th Avenue and just west of the Rikers Island Bridge is a mound of excavated material, or “spoils” that has been dubbed Ingraham’s Mountain.  This material was removed from under the Hudson River during construction of the third tube of the Lincoln Tunnel beginning in 1954. 

Originally measured at 86 feet tall, the site was partially flattened to serve as parking and contractor’s staging area for the recent reconstruction of LaGuardia Airport and for “For Hire Vehicle” parking as well.  It’s difficult to judge the current size of the mound with trees but the parking lot entrance is rather steep.

Digressing a little, the area just to the east was once known as Bowery Bay Beach and later, North Beach and famous for having an amusement park, dubbed “The Coney Island of Queens” that was built up between 1886 and 1895 and operated until about 1915. William Steinway, son of piano manufacturer Henry Steinway, and George Ehret spawned the idea to create the waterfront park that included hotels, an amusement park, a bathing beach and a pier.  I have a personal connection to North Beach as my maternal grandfather, an immigrant from Italy, worked at North Beach as a landscaper, in the 19-teens prior to serving in World War I.  Prohibition seems to have been the demise of the attraction. Ultimately, the area was converted through landfilling to become North Beach Airport in 1929, renamed Glenn H. Curtiss Airport and later LaGuardia Airport.

Prior to recent consciousness to protect waterways from development, it was commonplace to extend land into the waterways by adding soil in huge quantities.  NYC Office of Technology and Innovation’s “Then and Now” Application freely avails aerial photography from 1924, 1951, 1996 and more frequently from the early 2000s through today.  Aerial photos from 1924 show the North Beach Pier.  The 1951 aerial image indicates that the Lincoln Tunnel Third Tube spoils were placed on land and not intrusion into the East River.  However, between 1924 and 1951, landfill had been placed to form property north of Berrian Boulevard now occupied by a wastewater treatment facility and shows an even more massive fill operation to complete LaGuardia Airport and yes of course, the filling in of Rikers Island.  Remnants of North Beach are thus lost to history.  By 1996, we see Ingraham’s Mountain and the current aerial shows its modification to utilize the space.

So, the burning question is, who was Ingraham?  It is a bit of a mystery.  The name appears in various environmental assessment documents and sources seem to point to Ingraham being an employee of the Port Authority, instrumental in obtaining and using the site for the disposal of spoils.  No first name has been attributed.  Comments are open if anyone knows more about who Ingraham was.

Patrick O’Connor is a lifelong resident of Queens, retired with 40 years of service for City of New York Department of Environmental Protection, a licensed sightseeing guide in New York City.

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6/16/26