Union Turnpike is a thoroughfare stretching across part of Long Island in southern

New York state New York, officially the State of New York, is a U.S. state, state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the List of U.S. ...

, mostly within central and eastern

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 U ...

. It runs from

Myrtle Avenue Myrtle Avenue is a street that runs from Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn to Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens, in New York City, United States. Route description Queens Myrtle Avenue has been a major thoroughfare since the ear ...

Glendale, Queens Glendale is a neighborhood in the west-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Forest Hills to the east, Ridgewood to the west, Woodhaven to the south, and Middle Village to the north. Glendale was built on a s ...

, to Marcus Avenue in

North New Hyde Park North New Hyde Park is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 14,899 at the 2010 census. Portions of the area are also known as ...

, Nassau County, about outside New York City border. The name memorializes the Union Racetrack, once a famous attraction for Queens residents. Union Turnpike from Myrtle Avenue to the Nassau County border is long. The turnpike crosses into Nassau County at the city's easternmost point on Langdale Street, two blocks past the city's highest-numbered street (271st Street). North of the turnpike at this point is Glen Oaks and south of it is Floral Park, both sharing the same ZIP code (11004). It then enters the hamlet of North New Hyde Park.

Description

Starting from the intersection of

, 86th Street and the Jackie Robinson Parkway's east-bound exit 5 ramps in Glendale, Union Turnpike crosses Woodhaven Boulevard. It continues as the northern boundary of Forest Park to an intersection with Metropolitan Avenue. Just east of here Union Turnpike crosses over the Jackie Robinson Parkway near Exit 6 (Metropolitan Avenue). Union Turnpike then straddles the parkway, but there is no access to or from the parkway to Union Turnpike. This section is in

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

. Soon, Union Turnpike and the parkway go under a long tunnel. On top is

Queens Boulevard Queens Boulevard is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Queens connecting Midtown Manhattan, via the Queensboro Bridge, to Jamaica. It is long and forms part of New York State Route 25. Queens Boulevard runs northwest to ...

( New York State Highway 25). There is a full diamond interchange with it from Union Turnpike, but no access from the parkway. Just after Queens Boulevard, the parkway ends at the

Kew Gardens Interchange The Kew Gardens Interchange is a complex junction in Kew Gardens, in the center of the New York City borough of Queens serving nearly 600,000 vehicles daily. Description The Kew Gardens Interchange is located roughly midway between LaGuard ...

, connecting with the Van Wyck Expressway ( Interstate 678) and the Grand Central Parkway (Exits 7 and 8 on the Jackie Robinson, Exit 13 on the Grand Central, and Exit 10 on the Van Wyck. From Union Turnpike there is partial access to the Grand Central, and none to the Van Wyck). Union Turnpike eastbound goes on a bridge over the Grand Central Parkway to meet with Union Turnpike westbound on the other side at an intersection with the Grand Central Parkway's service roads just east of the intersection, and the road becomes a four-lane divided road. It continues through the neighborhoods within Kew Gardens Hills, where it crosses Main Street and Parsons Boulevard before passing 164th Street in Hillcrest, the western sub-neighborhood of Fresh Meadows. It then passes

St. John's University St John's University may refer to: *St. John's University (New York City) **St. John's University School of Law **St. John's University (Italy) - Overseas Campus *College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, St. Joseph, Minnesota and Col ...

, crossing Utopia Parkway, goes through

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...

, and proceeds into the broader neighborhood of Fresh Meadows when it crosses 188th Street and enters Cunningham Park at an intersection with Francis Lewis Boulevard. Just after Francis Lewis Boulevard is Oakland Gardens in the southern region of Bayside, where it shares a full diamond interchange with I-295, or the Clearview Expressway (Exit 2 on the Clearview). It then crosses Hollis Court Boulevard before leaving the park going into the north part of the district of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

. It passes through Hollis Hills in

Queens Village Queens Village is a mostly residential middle class neighborhood in the eastern part of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bound by Hollis to the west, Cambria Heights to the south, Bellerose to the east, and Oakland Gardens to the north. ...

, crossing Bell Boulevard and Springfield Boulevard. Just after Springfield Boulevard is a full interchange with the Grand Central Parkway (along the Grand Central, Exit 22 eastbound, and exit 23 westbound). After the Grand Central, Union Turnpike goes back into the neighborhood of Bayside, the eastern section of the Flushing district, where it becomes the southern boundary of Alley Pond Park until it intersects with Winchester Boulevard. It then passes the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, and then shares a full interchange with the Cross Island Parkway (Exit 28B on the Cross Island). Past here, Union Turnpike crosses Commonwealth Boulevard just after the Cross Island Parkway interchange before passing over Little Neck Parkway into Bellerose, then it passes through the neighborhood of Glen Oaks. It crosses the highest-numbered street in New York City, 271st Street, and then passes the city's easternmost point, at Langdale Street. Just past here, Union Turnpike enters Nassau County, where it intersects with Lakeville Road. It passes a shopping center in

Lake Success Lake Success can refer to: *Lake Success (California), lake in California *Lake Success, New York, village in New York *''Lake Success'', a novel by American author Gary Shteyngart Gary Shteyngart (; born July 5, 1972) is a Soviet-born American ...

, crosses New Hyde Park Road, and ends a block east at Marcus Avenue.

Character

With the exception of a section in Glendale, most of Union Turnpike consists of four traffic lanes divided by a narrow concrete median. The Glendale section contains a wide mall with trees, and in Kew Gardens, the turnpike flanks the Jackie Robinson Parkway crossing over the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road, before dipping below

. Though it appears to be a service road for the parkway, it does not function as such. There is no direct access to the parkway, though there is partial access to the

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, ...

. This section has its own full diamond interchange with

Former route designation

The section of Union Turnpike between Queens Boulevard and Marcus Avenue was New York State Route 25C from the mid-1930s to 1970.

Transportation

Between Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens and the city line, the Q46 bus line travels along Union Turnpike. The

Union Turnpike express buses The QM1, QM5, QM6, QM7, QM8, QM31, QM35, and QM36 bus routes constitute a public transit line in New York City, operating express between Northeast Queens and Midtown or Downtown Manhattan. The routes operate primarily on Union Turnpike in Q ...

, comprising eight routes, also run along this section. The Q23 and QM12 terminate on Union Turnpike just east of Woodhaven Boulevard in Glendale. In addition, the New York City Subway's Kew Gardens–Union Turnpike station, served by the , is located at Queens Boulevard.

Points of interest

Among the landmarks found along the turnpike are

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China * Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Fo ...

, Queens Borough Hall,

, and Creedmoor Psychiatric Center.

History

Union Turnpike was originally a dirt road, initially designed as a toll road. At the time, Union Turnpike traveled through relatively undeveloped areas, serving as a border between the towns of Flushing and

. It started at Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills and ended at Utopia Parkway near

. Prior to the construction of

and Interboro Parkway (now the Jackie Robinson Parkway) in the 1930s, Union Turnpike was heavily used, and developed businesses throughout its length. In 1929, there was a proposal to make improvements to four existing roads in order to make them major thoroughfares between Queens and Nassau, namely

Astoria Boulevard Astoria Boulevard is an important east-west commercial street in Astoria and East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. It runs from 1st Street at the East River to the World's Fair Marina on Flushing Bay, where it merges with Northern Boulevard. Jus ...

, Northern Boulevard, Nassau Boulevard, and Union Turnpike. Civic associations in

opposed the Union Turnpike proposal, and they convinced Queens Borough President George Harvey.Harvey Scores Civic Groups
. ''The Standard Union'' (Brooklyn, New York). December 10, 1930. p. 7. Nevertheless, the section of Union Turnpike from

to the Nassau County line was converted from a narrow unpaved road to a paved multi-lane highway in the late 1930s, in advance of the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Pur ...

. Around the same time, the turnpike was depressed below Queens Boulevard in conjunction with the construction of the Queens Boulevard Subway, and extended eastward from Fresh Meadows towards Marcus Avenue in Nassau County. Prior to 1970, the section of Union Turnpike to the east of

was designated as New York State Route 25C. Since then, only the section of Union Turnpike within Nassau County still carries this numerical designation.

Major intersections

References

External links

NY 25C; Union Turnpike (Greater New York Roads)
{{coord, 40, 43, 55.7, N, 73, 46, 4.7, W, display=title Streets in Queens, New York