John F. Kennedy Airport - Rosedale / South Ozone Park
Photo Gallery: Belt Pkwy
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The JFK Expressway is the newest such highway within New York City, built in the 1980's. It basically fulfills the original concept of the Clearview Expressway south of the Belt, providing an alternate eastern entrance and exit to and from JFK Airport. The Clearview, of course, never made it south of Hillside Avenue due to community opposition in 1961, but truncated as it is, I'm sure the JFK takes at least some pressure off the airport's Van Wyck Expressway portal. The view above of the diverging lanes, or merging if that's your perspective, of the JFK as they prepare to touch down, or alight from, the Belt. It was an unintentionally high and late shot, but what the hell. How many times do you get a close-up of the intricate girder work beneath an elevated highway? |
| Following the JFK eastbound lane touchdown, though JFKers have the urge, they still haven't merged with the Belt as both rumble over the Rockaway Boulevard overpass. The Yusen truck, of course, must stay off the Belt and get off first chance onto South Conduit Avenue, the service road, because the parkways are vehiclist and discriminate again commercial vehicles and trucks. The orange and white striped plastic barriers normally denote a construction zone, but I didn't detect any such activity around here. Maybe the DOT has no place else to store them. Maybe they're just there for decoration, to add a splash of color for nuts like me that come around to photograph the roads. Maybe they're body snatcher style invaders from outer space. Maybe I've been doing this too long.. |
| It's not exactly "Whites only" or "No dogs and Juden", but if you drove a tiny Ford Focus that just happened to have commercial plates, you might be very put out by the sign denying you entrance to the Belt Parkway. Does anybody know why NY Route 27 is south of lower route numbers like 25 and 24, when according to the numbering scheme, it should be well north of them? Couldn't the DOT afford an extra "." in the abbreviation of South on the Conduit directional, so as to keep it grammatically correct?. |
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Coming off the Rockaway Boulevard viaduct, the
merge is about to be consummated. The coming overpass is carrying Guy R.
Brewer Boulevard, formerly New York Boulevard, and formerly a stone faced
overpass with hard cornered elliptical arches like most of the neighboring
bridges along the Belt. It was recently replaced and is now unadorned blue
steel girders and concrete. I won't belabor the point any further, but I
have my suspicions why. Photos shot by Rosaura Murillo, May 2003. |