TRANSPORTATION

Residents of Jackson Heights could at first take The New York and Queens County Railway's Jackson Avenue trolley as transportation. They traveled to Long Island City, where they met with ferries that brought passengers to either 34th street or 92nd street in Manhattan. But the first great factor in having a definite controlling influence on the expansion of Jackson Heights was the construction of the Queensboro Bridge, which opened in 1909. By 1915, the first train carrying passengers from Grand Central Station through the 42nd Street tunnel arrived at the Jackson Avenue station in Long Island City (the start of the #7 train). Soon, there were plans for an elevated Queens subway path that proposed for a Corona extension, connecting growing areas such as Woodside, Broadway, Twenty-fifth Street (Jackson Heights), Elmhurst Avenue, and Junction Avenue.

The opening of the Corona extension of the Dual System elevated subway proved to be the turning point for Jackson Heights. There were two new lines that were part of the Dual System, the Interboro Rapid Transit (IRT) and Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT), and the IRT “L” line was extended through Jackson Heights. This choice of having an elevated subway by Roosevelt Avenue would prove to be beneficial for Jackson Heights, since it began to serve all the other growing populations of Flushing, Elmhurst and Corona as well as efficiently getting people to midtown Manhattan within fifteen minutes. Around Jackson Heights, from 1920 to 1924, ticket sales increased from 889,700 to 1,776,658 at the transit lines around the area. It was the erection of the IRT subway line that solidified Jackson Heights’ expansion. Due to the growing transportation system in Jackson Heights, the population in the 1920s began to skyrocket from 3,000 to 45,000, making it the fastest growing community in the United States” at the time.

Jackson Heights would continue to make improvements and changes in transportation, where it was to receive an express station at the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Broadway, also the site of the elevated Corona extension. This was called the IND subway line (what are today’s “E” and “F” lines) and had a significant influence on the growth of Jackson Heights, as it added another faster service for potential residents. Queensboro Corporation also began to hire a number of buses and cab companies into its garden community. This, of course, attracted most of the upper to middle white race to move into Jackson Heights in which MacDougall wanted in order to bring more prestige to the area. The emergence of the motor age also brought forth the use of more automobiles into Jackson Heights as plans for the Triboro Bridge, Midtown Tunnel, and Grand Central Parkway were undertaken around the 1920s. Jackson Heights was within short distances of these new roadways and it became even more accessible for people to travel around New York.

New transportation continued to develop even during the Depression, and it became the bright spot for the area at this time. Seven major new systems were developed in and around Jackson Heights: the Municipal 8th Avenue-53rd Street Subway, the Triboro Bridge, the 38th Street (Midtown) Tunnel, The Grand Central Parkway, the Whitestone Bridge, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and LaGuardia Airport, making the area more accessible for people. But one of the most anticipated transportation developments was the opening of the municipal subway in 1933. The municipal subway system extended all the way to Jamaica, Queens with the residents of the area being the first to benefit from the new open line. New businesses and shopping center developed in the vicinity of the Broadway terminal, and the junction of Broadway and Roosevelt Avenue made it the “42nd street” of Queens. Bus service also continued to expand by the 1930s, with the Triboro Coach Corporation giving service from Roosevelt Avenue to Astoria Boulevard, and shuttle buses appearing due to the demand of the municipal subway. By 1937, trolleys were removed from service and replaced by buses in and around Jackson Heights.

Immigrants were extremely attracted to Jackson Heights due to extremely accessible transit and bus lines that could be taken. In addition, the development of transportation attracted immigrants to all the commercial establishments that prospered around the area, where many thought they could find jobs or become entrepreneurs themselves as many starting businesses flourished in the area as well. Even after the Depression, Queensboro Corporation continued to build apartments and cooperative for people to settle in at a minimal price, and therefore attracted many immigrants found this as an area of where they wanted to live by the 1960s. The emergence of transportation upon Jackson Heights proves how it came to be so ethnically diverse, especially to today's no. 7 train, as it passes through than 120 cultures on its seven-mile trek from Times Square to Flushing, Queens.

Jackson Heights is trying to create new ways improving the transportation system around its area. The Metropolitan Transit Authority are buying many business buildings, and are demolishing that along with an outdated bus terminal that runs along 74th and 75th street near Roosevelt Avenue in order to revamp the transportation systems in the area. The MTA plans to create a new station where the bus terminal and subway stations would be connected by an enclosed link that will make it easier and comfortable for commuters to transfer. It would also create a waiting area for many passengers between bus and train stations that would be air conditioned in the summer and heated in the winter. This terminal would also be handicapped accessible and include trains and escalators to the train platforms.