Map: Parks & Playgrounds
A map of the parks and playgrounds in Queens West and Long Island City, NY.
13 places on the QueensWest.com “Parks & Playgrounds” map, as of 2008–2013.
Andrew's Grove
Blue Park
Address (as listed): 50th Ave & Center Blvd, Long Island City, NY 11101
Bridge & Tunnel Park
Address (as listed): Tunnel Plaza, 50th Ave, 11th Street
Website then: http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/park_info_pages/park_info.php?propID=Q360U
The “bridge” and “tunnel” in this park’s name refer to Pulaski Bridge and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, which connect Queens to Brooklyn and to Manhattan, respectively. Both are visible from the park.
The bridge extends over Newtown Creek, which serves as a boundary between Queens and Brooklyn. It was named after Casimir Pulaski (1747-1779), a Polish-born brigadier general known as the “father of American cavalry,” who helped bring the Americans to victory over the British during the Revolutionary War (1776-1783). Pulaski was exiled from Russia after supporting the cause of Polish-Lithuanian freedom. Benjamin Franklin convinced him to come to America, writing that Pulaski’s military experience would be greatly valued. “I came here,” Pulaski wrote in his first letter to General George Washington, “where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live and die for it.” Pulaski did, in fact, die for it, receiving a fatal wound at the Battle of Savannah in 1779.
Pedestrians can access the six-lane drawbridge at 11th Street and 50th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, or at McGuinness Avenue and Freeman Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Every year on the first Sunday of November, New York City Marathon runners know they have reached the halfway mark of the 26.2-mile race when they cross the Pulaski Bridge into Queens.
The Queens-Midtown Tunnel is a double tube tunnel that runs under the East River between 36th Street in Manhattan and Long Island City, Queens. The name’s etymology is more self-explanatory than that of the Pulaski Bridge. It opened to traffic in 1940, and was the third tunnel to provide motor vehicle access to Manhattan. Advanced construction techniques employed by engineer and designer Ole Signstad enabled workers to complete this 1.19 mile (1.92 kilometer) long tunnel in just four years.
The City acquired the land that is now Bridge and Tunnel Park in 1848 by condemnation for the Pulaski Bridge approach. Parks gained jurisdiction over the property in 1957, and subsequently planned a “landscaped sitting area with shade trees and benches.” In 1976, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority agreed to maintain the park, although Parks would retain jurisdiction over the land. In 1979, Bridge and Tunnel Park opened, equipped with two handball courts and a basketball court.
Community Park
Address (as listed): 49th Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101
Hunters Point Park
Address (as listed): 48th Ave & 5th Street, Long Island City, NY 11101
Murray Playground
Old Hickory Park
Website then: http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=12627
Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson (1767-1845) was the seventh president of the United States. He earned the nickname, which refers to this strength and stubbornness, from his troops after crushing the British at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.
The son of Irish immigrants, Andrew Jackson was born in the uncharted Carolinas. Jackson’s father died before his son’s birth, and his mother and brother were both killed during the Revolutionary War. Jackson fought in the Revolution as well, spending time as a prisoner of war before its conclusion. In 1788, he became a prosecuting attorney in the western district of North Carolina, which soon became Tennessee. Soon after, Jackson established his cotton plantation, the Hermitage, where he used slave laborers. He was also married around the same time, but his wife Rachel, had never properly divorced her first husband. Though she and Jackson legally remarried in Nashville in 1791, a sense of scandal always surrounded their relationship.
Jackson’s ascent to high political office was linked to his military achievements. He served in the Tennessee Constitutional Convention, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. His local constituents elected him Major General of the Tennessee militia in 1802. His valor brought him into the national spotlight during the War of 1812, when his ruthless pursuit of the British led him to a great victory in the Battle of New Orleans. During ongoing conflicts between the U.S. government and native populations, Jackson led violent campaigns against the Creeks in the Mississippi Territory and the Seminoles in the Florida Territory. He became the military governor of Florida in 1821.
Jackson first ran for president in 1824, and despite winning the popular majority he did not obtain enough Electoral College votes to win the four-way race. The House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams to serve. In 1828, Jackson defeated Adams for the presidency with a large majority, but he also suffered the loss of his wife Rachel, who died on December 22, 1828. Shortly after he took office, Jackson replaced many government officials with his personal and political allies. The adage “To the victor belong the spoils” seemed to fit this Jacksonian philosophy, and this practice of political favors has been called a “spoils system” ever since.
Jackson was popularly recognized as a champion of the “common man” during his eight years as president, and the reputation was not entirely undeserved. Just before the election of 1832, Jackson vetoed the re-chartering of the Bank of the United States because it left a small number of capitalists too much control over public funds. Although the spoils system smacks of corruption, it also meant that ordinary citizens ascended into posts that career politicians might otherwise have monopolized.
On the other hand, Jackson’s opponents had justification for the epithet “King Andrew I.” During the South Carolina tariff (i.e. tax) conflict, he used military force for tariff collection. He forced the relocation of Native Americans to the west of the Mississippi River, a policy responsible for the “trail of tears” on which many died. A slaveowner himself, he condemned abolitionists in the name of preserving tranquility. Jackson may have had an admirably egalitarian vision for American democracy; but it was tainted by an inclination towards violent enforcement and racial prejudice against Native Americans and African-Americans. In 1836, he retired to the Hermitage, where he died on June 8, 1845.
Old Hickory Park is bounded by Jackson Avenue, 51st Avenue, and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel Toll Plaza. Jackson Avenue, like the Jackson Heights neighborhood, bears the name John C. Jackson. He was the president of the Hunter’s Point, Newtown, and Flushing Turnpike Company, which chartered the avenue in 1859. The Queens-Midtown Tunnel, designed by Ole Singstad, runs between 36th Street in Manhattan and Long Island City in Queens. After only four years of construction, the tunnel was completed in 1940. A double tunnel, reaching 6,300 feet in length, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel has computer-controlled ventilation towers that refresh the tunnel air every minute and a half.
Peninsula Park
Address (as listed): 47th Road & Center Blvd, Long Island City, NY 11101
Queens Bridge Park
Rainey Park
Rockrose Track
Socrates Sculpture Park
Address (as listed): 225 Vernon Blvd, New York, NY 11106
Phone (as listed): (718) 626-1533
Website then: http://www.socratessculpturepark.org/
Socrates Sculpture Park was an abandoned riverside landfill and illegal dumpsite until 1986 when a coalition of artists and community members, under the leadership of artist Mark di Suvero, transformed it into an open studio and exhibition space for artists and a neighborhood park for local residents. Today it is an internationally renowned outdoor museum and artist residency program that also serves as a vital New York City park offering a wide variety of public services.
Vernon Blvd Park
Address (as listed): 53rd Ave & Vernon Blvd, Long Island City, NY
From the QueensWest.com database (2013 export). Original address: queenswest.com/maps/parks-playgrounds