Reconstruction of Steinway Tunnel, 1915. The Steinway Tunnel was originally built for trolleys and is named for William Steinway, one of the “sons” of the Steinway & Sons piano manufacturing company. Steinway advocated for its construction as part of a bigger plan to develop areas of Queens, especially Astoria where his plant was located. The plan also included extending his horsecar line (the Steinway & Hunter’s Point Railroad) into midtown Manhattan. At the time, Queens was not yet incorporated into New York City, and Long Island City—where the tunnel would be situated—was its own municipality. Groundbreaking on the tunnel began in 1892. The starting point was an 85-foot work shaft dug at 50th Avenue between Vernon and Jackson Avenues, where the Vernon-Jackson station on the 7 train is located today. Construction accidents, lawsuits, financial woes, and the constant flooding of the site by an underground spring caused the project to be shut down entirely in 1893. Tunnels originally built for trolleys had to be modified for subway trains, which meant tracks needed to be realigned and catenary wire removed. In June of 1915 the tunnel opened to IRT service, which at first was just a shuttle between Grand Central and Vernon Boulevard.

Great Lakes Coal and Coke Corporation coal yard and shipping dock at Newtown Creek, 1934.

Vernon Avenue Bridge, 1930. While many of the other Newtown Creek crossings have been replaced over the years with new infrastructure in the same location, there is no longer a bridge where the Vernon Avenue Bridge once stood. The bridge opened in October 1905 and was used for trolley, automobile, and pedestrian traffic. It replaced an 1882 swing bridge. The bridge connected the main thoroughfares of two communities: Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn and Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City. While early on the bridge saw heavy use (in 1918 it had 2,241,465 vehicular crossings and 168,630 trolley trips), eventually it became inadequate for the city's needs. It often broke down, was up for the passage of ships, and the constant traffic was hard on the roadways. In addition, it was rammed by a 10,000-ton ship carrying coal in 1949. In the mid-1950s the bridge was razed and replaced with the nearby Pulaski Bridge.

"51st Avenue, north side, east from Jackson Avenue, showing the types of buildings that prevailed in this section of Long Island City at the time when the Queens-Midtown Tunnel was cut through, 1938"

"The crowded main square at Long Island City; street car and bicyclists visible, 1898." Built in 1881, and sold in 1919, Miller's Hotel (seen at center across from the ferry terminal building) was a well-known watering hole for gamblers as well as Queens and Manhattan politicians including many Tammany Hall bosses.

The Chelsea Fiber Mills at 1155 Manhattan Avenue was a part of North Brooklyn's rope industry, which grew due to its proximity to Newtown Creek, then an industrial waterway. The rope industry began supplying nearby shipyards but outlived the shipbuilding industry and survived well into the 20th century. The complex is now the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Corporation (GMDC). What started as a few low brick buildings on the waterfront in the late 19th century soon grew to an eight-building complex by 1903. The facilities housed 366,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The president of the company, George Pratt lead the company through this time of growth. Pratt was also the son of Charles Pratt, the president of Astral Oil which was located just blocks away. The Chelsea Fiber Mill manufactured marine rope from sisal, manila, jute, and hemp. This mill and another North Brooklyn rope producer, the American Manufacturing Company, employed around 4,000 people according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Many of the employees lived in the neighborhood of Greenpoint or across the creek in Queens. Employees of the Fiber Mill would walk across the Vernon Avenue bridge whose landing was adjacent to the complex. Also nearby, the Manhattan Avenue Trolley line carried employees right to the mill. In fact, the turnaround barn was located just across Manhattan Avenue from the Mill. Builder's drawings of the site indicate that materials and fuel were received via loading bays right on the waterfront. From there, coal was carted on tracks that covered the roofs of the lower buildings, feeding the gargantuan two-story-tall boilers from rooftop chutes. These boilers, which held quantities massive enough to cover an entire baseball diamond, dated 1880 from and remain inside the facility today. Though the Mills flourished during the World Wars, it was not able to survive past the 1950s. The mill closed up shop, and the complex was adapted for use by textile manufacturers and fabric dyers. In 1974, the City of New York seized the property from then-owner Grossen Dye Works for failure to pay taxes. Once seized, the city lacked proper funding to update or even maintain the complex. Commercial tenants rented spaces for low rates and set up studios and workshops, though occupants were expected to perform their own maintenance. By the 1980s, private developers were invited to gauge the marketability of the complex, though no potential buyers stepped forward. Growing tired of the lack of structure the city provided for the former mill, a group of tenants, community members, local businesses, and elected officials devised their own plan to convert the property into art and industrial center. The tenants formed the Woodworking Center Equity Corporation to manage the facilities and handle leases in the building. In 1992, the head of the tenant group and David Sweeny, the director of economic development at the North Brooklyn Development Corporation, worked together to incorporate the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center (GMDC). The non-profit GMDC was able to purchase the building from the city for $1 with an additional pledge of one million dollars from the city for renovations. The corporation kept rents low and encouraged light industry by accepting small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses in the building. Currently, 76 artists and small businesses work out of the space. Additionally, GMDC employs around 360 people from adjacent communities, rooting the liveliness of the building in the neighborhood, keeping with the spirit of the original Chelsea Fiber Mill.

Did you know that the construction of the IRT Flushing line (known as the Corona Line until 1925) was the catalyst for real estate development that transformed the rural areas of Queens into vibrant neighborhoods?

"Newtown" was the name of Elmhurst for more than 200 years when it was changed in 1897, and many places in town still use that name. But in Colonial times, Newtown also referred to a much larger township, which stretched all the way to the waterfront and what is now Long Island City. You may need to hop on a bus to complete this tour of Revolutionary-era sites in Newtown!

Vernon Boulevard North at 50th Avenue, 1931. Banca Commerciale Italiana (on the corner at right) operated in New York City from 1928 until 1939. It served the Italian immigrant and first generation population of Long Island City, most of whom immigrated from one particular town called Nusco, in the south of Italy near Naples.

Gantries on the Long Island City Waterfront, 1978. The transfer bridges and support gantries were constructed in 1925 and used to transfer freight cars from barges onto the Long Island Rail Road tracks for travel to industries on Long Island. The gantries were out of use by the 1970s and in 1998 this southern waterfront area and the area just to the north (part of the former Pepsi bottling plant) were developed into Gantry State Park.

Queens County Bank, Branch of Corn Exchange Bank, 1921. Established as the Flushing and Queens County Bank in 1873, the banking company housed in this building changed names a number of times. In 1921 when this photo was taken, the bank was called the Queens County Bank, Branch of Corn Exchange Bank. Constructed around 1890, this small Romanesque Revival style building is similar in design to the Corn Exchange building on 125th Street in Harlem, but the Manhattan building, at six stories (originally) dwarfed its Queens counterpart.