Colonial and post-colonial history

Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England

Queens Boulevard, looking east from Van Dam Street, in 1920. The newly built IRT Flushing Line is in the boulevard's median.

The first European settlement in the region was the Dutch, who established the colony of New Netherland. The first settlements were established in 1635 followed by further settlement at Maspeth in 1642 (ultimately unsuccessful),^[15] and Vlissingen (now Flushing) in 1645.^[16] Other early settlements included Newtown (now Elmhurst) in 1652 and Jamaica in 1655. However, these towns were mostly inhabited by English settlers from New England via eastern Long Island (Suffolk County) who were subject to Dutch law.^[17] After the capture of the colony by the English and its subsequent renaming as New York in 1664, the area (and all of Long Island) became known as Yorkshire.^{[18]: xi–xii}

The Flushing Remonstrance signed by colonists in 1657 is considered a precursor to the United States Constitution's provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights. The signers protested the Dutch colonial authorities' persecution of Quakers in what is today the borough of Queens.

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Originally, Queens County included the adjacent area now comprising Nassau County. It was an original county of New York State, one of twelve created on November 1, 1683.^{[18]: 121–122} The county is presumed to have been named after Catherine of Braganza, since she was queen of England at the time (she was Portugal's royal princess Catarina, daughter of King John IV of Portugal).^[11] The county was founded alongside Kings County (Brooklyn, which was named after her husband, King Charles II), and Richmond County (Staten Island, named after his illegitimate son, the 1st Duke of Richmond).^[19][20][21] However, the namesake is disputed. While Catherine's title seems the most likely namesake, no historical evidence of official declaration has been found.^[22] On October 7, 1691, all counties in the Colony of New York were redefined. Queens gained North and South Brother Islands as well as Huletts Island (today known as Rikers Island).^[18]: 268 On December 3, 1768, Queens gained other islands in Long Island Sound that were not already assigned to a county but that did not abut on Westchester County (today's Bronx County).^{[18]: 1062–1063}

Queens played a minor role in the American Revolution, as compared to Brooklyn, where the Battle of Long Island was largely fought. Queens, like the rest of what became New York City and Long Island, remained under British occupation after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and was occupied throughout most of the rest of the Revolutionary War. Under the Quartering Act, British soldiers used, as barracks, the public inns and uninhabited buildings belonging to Queens residents. Even though many residents opposed unannounced quartering, they supported the British crown. The quartering of soldiers in private homes, except in times of war, was banned by the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution. Nathan Hale was captured by the British on the shore of Flushing Bay and hanged in Manhattan.

From 1683 until 1784, Queens County consisted of five towns: Flushing, Hempstead, Jamaica, Newtown, and Oyster Bay. On April 6, 1784, a sixth town, the Town of North Hempstead, was formed through secession by the northern portions of the Town of Hempstead.^[23][24] The seat of the county government was located first in Jamaica,^[25] but the courthouse was torn down by the British during the American Revolution to use the materials to build barracks.^[26] After the war, various buildings in Jamaica temporarily served as courthouse and jail until a new building was erected about 1787 (and later completed) in an area near Mineola (now in Nassau County) known then as Clowesville.^[27][28][29]

The 1850 United States census was the first in which the population of the three western towns exceeded that of the three eastern towns that are now part of Nassau County. Concerns were raised about the condition and distance of the old courthouse, and several sites were in contention for the construction of a new one.^[30]

In 1870, Long Island City split from the Town of Newtown, incorporating itself as a city, consisting of what had been the village of Astoria and some unincorporated areas within the town of Newtown. Around 1874, the seat of county government was moved to Long Island City from Mineola.^{[31][32][33][34]}

On March 1, 1860, the eastern border between Queens County (later Nassau County) and Suffolk County was redefined with no discernible change.^[35] On June 8, 1881, North Brother Island was transferred to New York County.^[36] On May 8, 1884, Rikers Island was transferred to New York County.^[37]

In 1886, Lloyd's Neck, which was then part of the town of Oyster Bay and had earlier been known as Queens Village, was set off and separated from Queens County and annexed to the town of Huntington in Suffolk County.^[38][39][40] On April 16, 1964, South Brother Island was transferred to Bronx County.^[41]

Incorporation as borough

The New York City borough of Queens was authorized on May 4, 1897, by a vote of the New York State Legislature after an 1894 referendum on consolidation.^[42] The eastern 280 square miles (730 km²) of Queens that became Nassau County was partitioned on January 1, 1899.^[43] Queens Borough was established on January 1, 1898.^[44][45][46]

"The city of Long Island City, the towns of Newtown, Flushing and Jamaica, and that part of the town of Hempstead, in the county of Queens, which is westerly of a straight line drawn through the middle of the channel between Rockaway Beach and Shelter Island, in the county of Queens, to the Atlantic Ocean" was annexed to New York City,^[12] dissolving all former municipal governments (Long Island City, the county government, all towns, and all villages) within the new borough.^[47] The areas of Queens County that were not part of the consolidation plan,^{[33][48][49][50][51][52][53]} consisting of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay, and the major remaining portion of the Town of Hempstead, remained part of Queens County until they seceded to form the new Nassau County on January 1, 1899. At this point, the boundaries of Queens County and the Borough of Queens became coterminous. With consolidation, Jamaica once again became the county seat, though county offices now extend to nearby Kew Gardens also.^[54]

In 1899, New York City conducted a land survey to determine the exact border of Queens between the Rockaways and Lawrence. This proved difficult because the border was defined as "middle of the channel between Rockaway Beach and Shelter Island" (now called Long Beach Island), and that particular channel had closed up by 1899. The surveyors had to determine where the channel had been when the consolidation law was written in 1894. The surveyors did so in part by speaking with local fishermen and oystermen who knew the area well.^[53]

From 1905 to 1908, the Long Island Rail Road in Queens became electrified. Transportation to and from Manhattan, previously by ferry or via bridges in Brooklyn, opened up with the Queensboro Bridge finished in 1909, and with railway tunnels under the East River in 1910. From 1915 onward, much of Queens was connected to the New York City Subway system.^[27][55] With the 1915 construction of the Steinway Tunnel carrying the IRT Flushing Line between Queens and Manhattan, and the robust expansion of the use of the automobile, the population of Queens more than doubled in the 1920s, from 469,042 in 1920 to 1,079,129 in 1930.^[56]

In later years, Queens was the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair and the 1964 New York World's Fair.^[57] LaGuardia Airport, established on a site in northern Queens that had been a seaplane base, opened in 1939, named for mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who pushed for the development of a modern airport in New York City.^[58] Idlewild Airport, in southern Queens, opened in 1948 on the site of a former golf course and was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963.^[59] In one of several notable incidents, TWA Flight 800 took off from the airport on July 17, 1996, and exploded in midair off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 on board the Boeing 747.^[60] American Airlines Flight 587 took off from the latter airport on November 12, 2001, but ended up crashing in Belle Harbor, killing all 260 on board and five people on the ground.^[61] In late October 2012, much of Breezy Point was damaged by a massive six-alarm fire caused by Hurricane Sandy, the largest fire of residential homes in FDNY history, destroying 126 homes in an area where every building was damaged by either water, wind or the resulting fires.^[62]

Looking south from the Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification, using the 32 °F (0 °C) coldest month (January) isotherm, Queens and the rest of New York City have a humid continental climate (Dfa) bordering humid subtropical climate (Cfa) with partial shielding from the Appalachian Mountains and moderating influences from the Atlantic Ocean. Queens receives precipitation throughout the year, with an average of 44.8 inches (114 cm) per year. In an average year, there will be 44 days with either moderate or heavy rain.^[67]

An average winter will have 22 days with some snowfall, of which nine days have at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) of snowfall.^[67] Summer is typically hot, humid, and wet. An average year will have 17 days with a high temperature of 90 °F (32 °C) or warmer.^[67] In an average year, there are 14 days on which the temperature does not go above 32 °F (0 °C) all day.^[67] Spring and autumn can vary from chilly to very warm.

The highest temperature ever recorded at LaGuardia Airport was 107 °F (42 °C) on July 3, 1966.^[68][67] The highest temperature ever recorded at John F. Kennedy International Airport was 104 °F (40 °C), also on July 3, 1966.^[68][69] LaGuardia Airport's record-low temperature was −7 °F (−22 °C) on February 15, 1943, the effect of which was exacerbated by a shortage of heating oil and coal.^[67][70] John F. Kennedy International Airport's record-low temperature was −2 °F (−19 °C), on February 8, 1963, and January 21, 1985.^[69][71][72] On January 24, 2016, 30.5 inches (77 cm) of snow fell, which is the record in Queens.^[73]

Tornadoes are generally rare; the most recent tornado, an EF0, touched down in College Point on August 3, 2018, causing minor damage.^[74] Before that, there was a tornado in Breezy Point on September 8, 2012, which damaged the roofs of some homes,^[75] and an EF1 tornado in Flushing on September 26, 2010.^[76]

Ethnic groups

Little India in Jackson Heights

Ridgewood is home to a large Puerto Rican community

According to a 2001 Claritas study, Queens was the most diverse county in the United States among counties of 100,000+ population.^[102] A 2014 analysis by The Atlantic found Queens County to be the third most racially diverse county-equivalent in the United States—behind Aleutians West Census Area and Aleutians East Borough in Alaska—as well as the most diverse county in New York.^[9] Meanwhile, a 2017 study by Axios found that, although numerous smaller counties in the United States had higher rates of diversity, Queens was the United States' most diverse populous county.^[10]

In Queens, approximately 48.5% of the population was foreign born as of 2010. Within the foreign born population, 49.5% were born in Latin America, 33.5% in Asia, 14.8% in Europe, 1.8% in Africa, and 0.4% in North America. Roughly 2.1% of the population was born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, or abroad to American parents. In addition, 51.2% of the population was born in the United States. Approximately 44.2% of the population over 5 years of age speak English at home; 23.8% speak Spanish at home. Also, 16.8% of the populace speak other Indo-European languages at home. Another 13.5% speak a non-Indo-European Asian language or language of the Pacific Islands at home.^[103]

Among the Asian population in 2010, people of Chinese ethnicity made up the largest ethnic group at 10.2% of Queens' population, with about 237,484 people; the other East and Southeast Asian groups are: Koreans (2.9%), Filipinos (1.7%), Japanese (0.3%), Thais (0.2%), Vietnamese (0.2%), and Indonesians and Burmese both make up 0.1% of the population.^[104] People of South Asian descent made up 7.8% of Queens' population: Indians (5.3%), Bangladeshi (1.5%), Pakistanis (0.7%), and Nepali (0.2%).^[104] In 2019, Chinese Americans remained the largest Asian ethnicity (10.9%) followed by Asian Indians (5.7%).^[99] Asian Indians had estimated population of 144,896 in 2014 (6.24% of the 2014 borough population),^[105] as well as Pakistani Americans, who numbered at 15,604.^[106] Queens has the second largest Sikh population in the nation after California.^[107]

Among the Hispanic or Latin American population, Puerto Ricans made up the largest ethnic group at 4.6%, next to Mexicans, who made up 4.2% of the population, and Dominicans at 3.9%. Central Americans made up 2.4% and are mostly Salvadorans. South Americans constitute 9.6% of Queens's population, mainly of Ecuadorian (4.4%) and Colombian descent (4.2%).^[104] The 2019 American Community Survey estimated Mexicans and Puerto Ricans were equally the largest groups (4.5% each) in Queens, and Cuban Americans were the third largest single group. Other Hispanic and Latinos collectively made up 18.9% of the population.^[99] The Hispanic or Latino population increased by 61% to 597,773 between 1990 and 2006 and now accounts for over 26.5% of the borough's population.

Queens has the largest Colombian population in the city, accounting for over 35.6% of the city's total Colombian population, for a total of 145,956 in 2019;^[85] it also has the largest Ecuadorian population in the city, accounting for 62.2% of the city's total Ecuadorian population, for a total of 101,339. Queens has the largest Peruvian population in the city, accounting for 69.9% of the city's total Peruvian population, for a total of 30,825. Queens has the largest Salvadoran population in the city, accounting for 50.7% of the city for a total population of 25,235. The Mexican population in Queens has increased 45.7% since 2011 to 71,283, the second-highest in the city, after Brooklyn.^[108]

Queens is also home to 49.6% of the city's Asian population. Among the five boroughs, Queens has the largest population of Chinese, Indian, Korean, Filipino, Bangladeshi and Pakistani Americans. Queens has the largest Asian American population by county outside the Western United States; according to the 2006 American Community Survey, Queens ranks fifth among US counties with 477,772 (21.18%) Asian Americans, behind Los Angeles County, California, Honolulu County, Hawaii, Santa Clara County, California, and Orange County, California.

Some main European ancestries in Queens as of 2000 include: Italian (8.4%), Irish (5.5%), German (3.5%), Polish (2.7%), Russian (2.3%), and Greek (2.0%). Of the European American population, Queens has the third largest Bosnian population in the United States behind only St. Louis and Chicago, numbering more than 15,000.^[109] Queens is home to some 50,000 Armenian Americans.^[110]

The Jewish Community Study of New York 2011, sponsored by the UJA-Federation of New York, found that about 9% of Queens residents were Jews.^[111] In 2011, there were about 198,000 Jews in Queens, making it home to about 13% of all people in Jewish households in the eight-county area consisting of the Five Boroughs and Westchester, Nassau, and Suffolk counties.^[111] Russian-speaking Jews make up 28% of the Jewish population in Queens, the largest in any of the eight counties.^[112]

In Queens, the Black and African American population earns more than non-Hispanic whites on average.^[113] Many of these Blacks and African Americans live in quiet, middle-class suburban neighborhoods near the Nassau County border, such as Laurelton and Cambria Heights which have large black populations whose family income is higher than average. The migration of European Americans from parts of Queens has been long ongoing with departures from Ozone Park, Woodhaven, Bellerose, Floral Park, and Flushing (most of the outgoing population has been replaced with Asian Americans). Neighborhoods such as Whitestone, College Point, North Flushing, Auburndale, Bayside, Middle Village, and Douglaston–Little Neck have not had a substantial exodus of white residents, but have seen an increase of Asian population, mostly Chinese and Korean. Queens has experienced a real estate boom making most of its neighborhoods desirable for people who want to reside near Manhattan but in a less urban setting.

Languages

According to the office of the New York State Comptroller in 2000, 138 languages are spoken in the borough.^[114] The 2021 American Community Survey by the United States Census Bureau, found that – of those over the age of five residing in Queens – 54.53% spoke a language other than English in the home. The following tables shows the 15 most common non-English languages in Queens, with the most prominent being Spanish, Chinese, and Bengali.

Religion

Rocket Thrower (1963) at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

In 2010 statistics, the largest religious group in Queens was the Diocese of Brooklyn, with 677,520 Roman Catholics worshiping at 100 parishes, followed by an estimated 81,456 Muslims with 57 congregations, 80,000 Orthodox Jews with 110 congregations, 33,325 non-denominational Christian adherents with 129 congregations, 28,085 AME Methodists with 14 congregations, 24,250 Greek Orthodox with 6 congregations, 16,775 Hindus with 18 congregations, 13,989 AoG Pentecostals with 64 congregations, 13,507 Seventh-day Adventists with 45 congregations, and 12,957 Mahayana Buddhists with 26 congregations. Altogether, 49.4% of the population was claimed as members by religious congregations, although members of historically African American denominations were underrepresented due to incomplete information.^[115] In 2014, Queens had 738 religious organizations, the thirteenth most out of all U.S. counties.^[116]

Food

The cuisine available in Queens reflects its vast cultural diversity. The cuisine of a particular neighborhood often represents its demographics; for example, Astoria hosts many Greek restaurants, in keeping with its traditionally Greek population.^[125] Jackson Heights is known for its prominent Indian cuisine and also many Latin American eateries.^[126]

The Queens Night Market in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, operating since 2015 on Saturdays from April to October (with a break from late August to mid-September), offers samples of food capped at $6 from dozens of countries with attendance of up to 20,000 a night.^{[127][128][129]}

Federal representation

As of 2023, four Democrats represent Queens in the United States House of Representatives, with one seat vacant.^[148]

• New York's 3rd congressional district (currently vacant since the expulsion of Republican George Santos on December 1, 2023^[149]), which covers the northeast Queens neighborhoods of Little Neck, Whitestone, Glen Oaks, Queens Village and Floral Park. The district also covers the North Shore of Nassau County.^[148]
• Gregory Meeks (first elected in 1998) represents New York's 5th congressional district, which covers the entire Rockaway Peninsula as well as the southeast Queens neighborhoods of Broad Channel, Cambria Heights, Hollis, Jamaica, Laurelton, Rosedale, Saint Albans, Springfield Gardens, and South Ozone Park. The district also includes John F. Kennedy International Airport.^[148]
• Grace Meng (first elected in 2012) represents New York's 6th congressional district, which includes the central and eastern Queens neighborhoods of Auburndale, Bayside, Elmhurst, Flushing, Forest Hills, Glendale, Kew Gardens, Maspeth, Middle Village, Murray Hill, and Rego Park.^[148]
• Nydia Velázquez (first elected in 1992) represents New York's 7th congressional district, which includes the Queens neighborhoods of Maspeth, Ridgewood, Woodhaven, Sunnyside and Long Island City. The district also covers central and western Brooklyn.^[148]
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (first elected in 2018) represents New York's 14th congressional district, which includes the northwest Queens neighborhoods of Astoria, College Point, Corona, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Woodside, and Elmhurst. The district also covers the East Bronx.^[148]

Elementary and secondary education

Elementary and secondary school education in Queens is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. Non-charter public schools in the borough are managed by the New York City Department of Education,^[155] the largest public school system in the United States. Most private schools are affiliated with or identify themselves with the Roman Catholic or Jewish religious communities. Townsend Harris High School is a Queens public magnet high school for the humanities consistently ranked as among the top 100 high schools in the United States. One of the nine Specialized High Schools in New York City is located in Queens. Located in the York College, City University of New York Campus in Jamaica, the Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, which emphasizes both science and mathematics, ranks as one of the best high schools in both the state and the country. It is one of the smallest Specialized High Schools that requires an entrance exam, the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test. The school has a student body of around 400 students.

Postsecondary institutions

LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens

Queens College is part of the City University of New York.

• LaGuardia Community College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY), is known as "The World's Community College" for its diverse international student body representing more than 150 countries and speaking over 100 languages. The college has been named a National Institution of Excellence by the Policy Center on the First Year of College. In a 2003 benchmark survey, in the Large Community College category (8,000–14,999 students), LaGuardia was one of three community colleges ranked number one, nationally.^[156] The college hosts the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives.
• Queens College is one of the elite colleges in the CUNY system. Established in 1937 to offer a strong liberal arts education to the residents of the borough, Queens College has over 16,000 students including more than 12,000 undergraduates and over 4,000 graduate students. Students from 120 countries speaking 66 different languages are enrolled at the school, which is located in Flushing. Queens College is also the host of CUNY's law school. The Queens College Campus is also the home of Townsend Harris High School and the Queens College School for Math, Science, and Technology (PS/IS 499).
• Queensborough Community College, originally part of the State University of New York, is in Bayside and is now part of CUNY. It prepares students to attend senior colleges mainly in the CUNY system.
• St. John's University is a private, coeducational Roman Catholic university founded in 1870 by the Vincentian Fathers. With over 19,000 students, St. John's is known for its pharmacy, business and law programs as well as its men's basketball and soccer teams.
• Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology is a private, cutting edge, degree-granting institution located across the Grand Central Parkway from LaGuardia Airport. Its presence underscores the importance of aviation to the Queens economy.
• York College is one of CUNY's leading general-purpose liberal arts colleges, granting bachelor's degrees in more than 40 fields, as well as a combined BS/MS degree in Occupational Therapy. Noted for its Health Sciences Programs York College is also home to the Northeast Regional Office of the Food and Drug Administration.

Queens Public Library

A branch of the Queens Public Library in Flushing

The Queens Public Library is the public library system for the borough and one of three library systems serving New York City. Dating back to the foundation of the first Queens library in Flushing in 1858, the Queens Public Library is one of the largest public library systems in the United States. Separate from the New York Public Library, it is composed of 63 branches throughout the borough. In the fiscal year 2001, the Library achieved a circulation of 16.8 million. The Library has maintained the highest circulation of any city library in the country since 1985 and the highest circulation of any library in the nation since 1987. The Library maintains collections in many languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Haitian Creole, Polish, and six Indic languages, as well as smaller collections in 19 other languages.

Vehicles for hire

As of 2019, the city had about 80,000 for-hire vehicles, of which, two-thirds were ride-hail – Uber, Lyft, Via, and Juno.^[158] Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the ride-hail car offered a ride-share option. There are about 13,500 traditional taxis (yellow cabs with medallions) in the city, 7,676 boro taxis, 38,791 black cars, 21,932 livery cars, 288 commuter vans, and 2,206 paratransit vehicles.

Roundtrip car sharing

Zipcar, and others, entered New York City market in 2002 offering roundtrip car sharing from private locations, mostly from parking garages. In 2018, the city partnered with the roundtrip car share companies, led by Zipcar, to launch the nation's larges on-street car-sharing program with the greatest take-up in The Bronx and in Queens – Jackson Heights, Jamaica, and Far Rockaway.^{[159][160][161][162][163]} In 2020, during beginning throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Enterprise CarShare suspended service in New York City. Among the traditional car rental locations in Queens, both international airports harbor larger fleets, conveniently close to Queens residents.

Micromobility

Citi Bike – a docked-bike and e-bike sharing company had, as of July 2019, 169,000 annual subscribers. In 2021, the Department of Transportation and Citi Bike announced that, as part of its Phase 3 expansion, it was doubling its service area to 70 square miles and tripling the number of bikes to 40,000. The expansion includes 52 new docking stations in Astoria, as well as new stations in Sunnyside and Woodside.^[164]

Non-docked e-moped service was launched in the city by Revel in 2019. Companies such as Bird, Lime, VeoRide introduced non-docked e-scooter-sharing in 2021.^[165]

Airports

John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States

A multibillion-dollar reconstruction of LaGuardia Airport was announced in July 2015.^[166]

Queens has crucial importance in international and interstate air traffic, with two of the New York metropolitan area's three major airports located there. John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, served 62.6 million passengers (enplanements + deplanements) – 34.3 million of which were international, ranking it the busiest airport in the United States by international passenger traffic. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States imposed travel restrictions, first, in January 2020, on travelers from China and, in the following months, on travelers from other countries. 2020 annual passenger traffic at JFK dropped to 16.6 million (−73.4%) – 8.4 million (−73.4%) of which were international, still ranking it the busiest airport in the United States by international passenger traffic.^[167][168]

JFK is owned by the City of New York and managed, since 1947, by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The airport's runways and six terminals cover an area of 4,930 acres (2,000 ha) on Jamaica Bay in southeastern Queens.^[169] The airport's original official name was New York International Airport, although it was commonly known as Idlewild, with the name changed to Kennedy in December 1963 to honor the assassination of John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963.^[170]

LaGuardia Airport is located in East Elmhurst, in northern Queens, on Flushing Bay. Originally opened in 1939, the airport's two runways and four terminals cover 680 acres (280 ha), serving 28.4 million passengers in 2015.^[171] In 2014, citing outdated conditions in the airport's terminals, Vice President Joe Biden compared LaGuardia Airport to a "third world country".^[172] In 2015, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began a $4 billion project to renovate LaGuardia Airport's terminals and entryways. The project is expected to be complete by 2021.^[166]

Public transportation

46th Street – Bliss Street subway station

Flushing – Main Street LIRR station

Water transit

Main article: East 34th Street Ferry Landing

Newtown Creek with the Midtown Manhattan skyline in the background

New York Water Taxi operates service across the East River from Hunters Point in Long Island City to Manhattan at 34th Street and south to Pier 11 at Wall Street. In 2007, limited weekday service was begun between Breezy Point, the westernmost point in the Rockaways, to Pier 11 via the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Summertime weekend service provides service from Lower Manhattan and southwest Brooklyn to the peninsula's Gateway beaches.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012, ferry operator SeaStreak began running a city-subsidized ferry service between a makeshift ferry slip at Beach 108th Street and Beach Channel Drive in Rockaway Park and piers in Manhattan and Brooklyn.^[185] The service was extended multiple times.^[186] finally ending on October 31, 2014.^[187]

In February 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city government would begin a citywide ferry service called NYC Ferry to extend ferry transportation to communities in the city that have been traditionally underserved by public transit.^[188][189] The ferry opened in May 2017,^[190][191] with the Queens neighborhoods of Rockaway and Astoria served by their eponymous routes. A third route, the East River Ferry, serves Hunter's Point South.^[192]

Roads

Highways

Air Train JFK path above the Van Wyck Expressway

Queens is traversed by three trunk east–west highways. The Long Island Expressway (Interstate 495) runs from the Queens Midtown Tunnel on the west through the borough to Nassau County on the east. The Grand Central Parkway, whose western terminus is the Triborough Bridge, extends east to the Queens/Nassau border, where the roadway continues as the Northern State Parkway. The Belt Parkway begins at the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn, and extends east into Queens, past Aqueduct Racetrack and JFK Airport. On its eastern end at the Queens/Nassau border, it splits into the Southern State Parkway which continues east, and the Cross Island Parkway which turns north.^[193]

There are also several major north–south highways in Queens, including the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (Interstate 278), the Van Wyck Expressway (Interstate 678), the Clearview Expressway (Interstate 295), and the Cross Island Parkway.^[193]

Queens has six state highways that run west–east largely on surface roads. From north to south, they are New York State Route 25A (Northern Boulevard), New York State Route 25B (Hillside Avenue), New York State Route 25 (Queens Boulevard, Hillside Avenue, and Braddock Avenue), New York State Route 24 (Hempstead Avenue), and New York State Route 27 (Conduit Avenue). The only state highway that primarily uses an expressway is New York State Route 878, which uses the Nassau Expressway in southern Queens.^[193]

Streets

Cross-street signs for a single-named boulevard and a co-named avenue in Queens

The streets of Queens are laid out in a semi-grid system, with a numerical system of street names (similar to Manhattan and the Bronx). Nearly all roadways oriented north–south are "Streets", while east–west roadways are "Avenues", beginning with the number 1 in the west for Streets and the north for Avenues. In some parts of the borough, several consecutive streets may share numbers (for instance, 72nd Street followed by 72nd Place and 72nd Lane, or 52nd Avenue followed by 52nd Road, 52nd Drive, and 52nd Court), often confusing non-residents.^[194] Also, incongruous alignments of street grids, unusual street paths due to geography, or other circumstances often lead to the skipping of numbers (for instance, on Ditmars Boulevard, 70th Street is followed by Hazen Street which is followed by 49th Street). Numbered roads tend to be residential, although numbered commercial streets are not rare. A fair number of streets that were country roads in the 18th and 19th centuries (especially major thoroughfares such as Northern Boulevard, Queens Boulevard, Hillside Avenue, and Jamaica Avenue) carry names rather than numbers, typically though not uniformly called "Boulevards" or "Parkways".

Queens house numbering was designed to provide convenience in locating the address itself; the first half of a number in a Queens address refers to the nearest cross street, the second half refers to the house or lot number from where the street begins from that cross street, followed by the name of the street itself. For example, to find an address in Queens, 14-01 120th Street, one could ascertain from the address structure itself that the listed address is at the intersection of 14th Avenue and 120th Street and that the address must be closest to 14th Avenue rather than 15th Avenue, as it is the first lot on the block. This pattern does not stop when a street is named, assuming that there is an existing numbered cross-street. For example, Queens College is situated at 65–30 Kissena Boulevard, and is so named because the cross-street closest to the entrance is 65th Avenue.^[194]

Many of the village street grids of Queens had only worded names, some were numbered according to local numbering schemes, and some had a mix of words and numbers. In the early 1920s, a "Philadelphia Plan" was instituted to overlay one numbered system upon the whole borough. The Topographical Bureau, Borough of Queens, worked out the details. Subway stations were only partly renamed, and some, including those along the IRT Flushing Line (7 and <7>​ trains), now share dual names after the original street names.^[195] In 2012, some numbered streets in the Douglaston Hill Historic District were renamed to their original names, with 43rd Avenue becoming Pine Street.^[196]

The Rockaway Peninsula does not follow the same system as the rest of the borough and has its own numbering system. Streets are numbered in ascending order heading west from near the Nassau County border, and are prefixed with the word "Beach." Streets at the easternmost end, however, are nearly all named. Bayswater, which is on Jamaica Bay, has its numbered streets prefixed with the word "Bay" rather than "Beach". Another deviation from the norm is Broad Channel; it maintains the north–south numbering progression but uses only the suffix "Road", as well as the prefixes "West" and "East", depending on location relative to Cross Bay Boulevard, the neighborhood's major through street. Broad Channel's streets were a continuation of the mainland Queens grid in the 1950s; formerly the highest-numbered avenue in Queens was 208th Avenue rather than today's 165th Avenue in Howard Beach & Hamilton Beach. The other exception is the neighborhood of Ridgewood, which for the most part shares a grid and house numbering system with the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. The grid runs east–west from the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch right-of-way to Flushing Avenue; and north–south from Forest Avenue in Ridgewood to Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn before adjusting to meet up with the Bedford-Stuyvesant grid at Broadway. All streets on the grid have names.

Bridges and tunnels

See also: List of bridges and tunnels in New York City

The Triborough Bridge connects Queens with Manhattan and The Bronx.

Queens is connected to the Bronx by the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Triborough Bridge (also known as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge), and the Hell Gate Bridge. Queens is connected to Manhattan Island by the Triborough Bridge, the Queensboro Bridge, and the Queens–Midtown Tunnel, as well as to Roosevelt Island by the Roosevelt Island Bridge.

While most of the Queens/Brooklyn border is on land, the Kosciuszko Bridge crosses the Newtown Creek connecting Maspeth to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The Pulaski Bridge connects McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint to 11th Street, Jackson Avenue, and Hunters Point Avenue in Long Island City. The J. J. Byrne Memorial Bridge (a.k.a. Greenpoint Avenue Bridge) connects the sections of Greenpoint Avenue in Greenpoint and Long Island City. A lesser bridge connects Grand Avenue in Queens to Grand Street in Brooklyn.

The Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, built in 1939, traverses Jamaica Bay to connect the Rockaway Peninsula to Broad Channel and the rest of Queens.^[197] Constructed in 1937, the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge links Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn's longest thoroughfare, with Jacob Riis Park and the western end of the Peninsula.^[198] Both crossings were built and continue to be operated by what is now known as MTA Bridges and Tunnels. The IND Rockaway Line parallels the Cross Bay, has a mid-bay station at Broad Channel which is just a short walk from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, now part of Gateway National Recreation Area and a major stop on the Atlantic Flyway.