Astoria Boulevard is an important east-west commercial street in Astoria and East Elmhurst,

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. It runs from 1st Street at the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...

to the World's Fair Marina on

Flushing Bay Flushing Bay is a tidal embayment in New York City. It is located on the south side of the East River and stretches to the south near the neighborhood of Flushing, Queens. It is bordered on the west by LaGuardia Airport and the Grand Central Park ...

, where it merges with

Northern Boulevard New York State Route 25A (NY 25A) is a state highway on Long Island in New York, United States. It serves as the main east–west route for most of the North Shore of Long Island, running for from Interstate 495 (I-495) at th ...

. Just before the junction of the two boulevards, there is a large two lane ramp leading to the Whitestone Expressway. Most of the traffic on Astoria Boulevard heads toward this ramp, and then onto the Expressway. Astoria Boulevard is the southern border of Astoria Heights, and the northern border of North Corona.

Description

In East Elmhurst, Astoria Boulevard is a wide six lane, median divided street. However, traffic is usually light on the boulevard, presumably because the boulevard runs parallel to the busier Northern Boulevard and

Grand Central Parkway The Grand Central Parkway (GCP) is a 14.61-mile (23.51 km) long parkway that stretches from the Triborough Bridge in New York City to Nassau County on Long Island. At the Queens–Nassau border, it becomes the Northern State Parkway, ...

. During rush hours, though, this road becomes a major artery, serving as an alternate route to the Grand Central Parkway to access the Whitestone Expressway, and as a result, it frequently becomes congested. The efficient synchronization of the traffic lights minimize heavy delays, making this a popular alternate route to take instead of the Grand Central. The portion of Astoria Boulevard between roughly 31st and 78th Streets in Astoria serves as a

frontage road A frontage road (also known as an access road, outer road, service road, feeder road, or parallel road) is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. A frontage road is often used to provide access to private drive ...

, or service road for the Grand Central Parkway. Between First and 31st Streets, it is a busy two lane road, with bidirectional traffic. Here most of the traffic is bound for either the Whitestone Expressway or the Grand Central Parkway. Astoria Boulevard is served by the New York City Subway's BMT Astoria Line at the Astoria Boulevard station (), as well as the Q19, Q49 and M60 SBS bus routes.

History

The road that was to become Astoria Boulevard was authorized to be laid out in 1835, and was to run from the head of Flushing Bay on the Flushing and Newtown Turnpike to Hallett's Cove, in what is now Astoria. The Astoria and Flushing Turnpike Company was then chartered in 1840 to toll the road, with a small extension. It was still known by this name at least to 1909. However, it was more commonly known as Flushing Avenue up to the 1920s, when it was renamed Astoria Boulevard.

References

Astoria, Queens East Elmhurst, Queens Streets in Queens, New York {{NYC-road-stub