Flushing River
The Flushing River, also known as Flushing Creek, is a waterway that flows northward through the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, U.S. It runs mostly within Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, emptying into the Flushing Bay and the East River. The river runs through a valley that may have been a larger riverbed before the last Ice Age, and it divides Queens into western and eastern halves. Until the 20th century, the Flushing Creek was fed by three tributaries: Mill Creek and Kissena Creek on the eastern bank, and Horse Brook on the western bank.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, it divided the towns of Flushing on its right bank, to the east, and Newtown on its left bank, to the west. Several bridges were built across the Flushing River in the 19th and 20th centuries. Prior to the 1939 New York World's Fair, the southern portion of the river was expanded into the Meadow and Willow Lakes. A part of the Flushing River was buried prior to the 1964 New York World's Fair. Following accumulations of pollution in the 20th century, cleanup of the Flushing River started in the 1970s, though some portions of the river have yet to be restored.
The modern-day river is long, originating near the Jamaica Yard in Kew Gardens Hills. The river flows through Willow and Meadow Lakes before entering a tunnel north of the Long Island Expressway. The Flushing River runs for underground before resurfacing at the Tidal Gate Bridge at the northern end of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. The rest of the river separates the industrial portions of the Willets Point and Flushing neighborhoods before emptying into the Flushing Bay.
Course
The Flushing Creek once rose in the present-day neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills, where Vleigh Place traces the valley of the headwaters. The river's original source is now occupied by the Kew Gardens Interchange, while the reconstructed source is located near Jamaica Yard, emptying from a pipe there. The headwaters, fed by groundwater, empty north into Willow Lake and then Meadow Lake, two artificial freshwater lakes, which are respectively and comprise the southern half of present-day Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. Prior to the lakes' construction, the creek meandered through tidal marshes in the larger valley within the present-day park; its mouth was at Flushing Bay, a water body on the East River. The two lakes are connected via a narrow channel under Jewel Avenue.After following a channel north from Meadow Lake, the Flushing River runs for about underneath the ramps between the Van Wyck Expressway and Long Island Expressway. The river then feeds into the Pool of Industry and Fountain of the Planets, built during the 1964 New York World's Fair, running for about under the fountains. Afterward, the Flushing River re-emerges from the ground, where it partially divides a 19-acre plot of land occupied by the park's pitch and putt golf course. It then flows underneath the Tide Gate Bridge, where the fresh water river mixes with the saltwater from Flushing Bay. The channel widens, running between Willets Point to the west and Flushing to the east, finally emptying into Flushing Bay. The northernmost portion of the creek mostly contains bulkheads on the shoreline, with industrial uses on the eastern bank and marshes on the western bank. The total distance between Meadow Lake's outlet and the river's mouth is about.
The watershed of the Flushing River is primarily residential, though there are also significant recreational and open spaces, with industrial usages near the mouth of the river. Even though the Flushing River now largely follows an artificial route, the river still regularly overflows into surrounding areas, especially during heavy rain. Meadow Lake, which also overflows during rains, collects sewage from several surrounding neighborhoods. The raw sewage collected in the Flushing River has contributed to the heavy pollution in Flushing Bay.
Tributaries
, known historically as Ireland Mill Creek, is a right-bank tributary of the Flushing River, which begins in what is now Pomonok/Kew Gardens Hills. The creek is now largely buried, running through Kissena Park, Kissena Corridor Park, and Queens Botanical Garden. It empties into the Flushing Bay Combined Sewer Outfall Retention Facility, which lies on the right bank of the Flushing River, below the Al Oerter Recreation Center. The facility, completed in 2007, can hold up to of water from combined sewer overflows during storms, before pumping the water to the Tallman Island Waste Water Treatment Plant in College Point.is a right-bank tributary of the Flushing River that empties into the river just east of Flushing Bay. Mill Creek was fed by two branches. The southern branch, which has been infilled, originated at Town Pond at the modern-day intersection of Northern Boulevard and Main Street, which was filled in 1843; the creek then flowed north. The northern branch, which still exists in truncated form, originated at the site of the George U. Harvey Playground, near the intersection of 20th Avenue and the Whitestone Expressway in Whitestone, and flowed south through the present sites of College Point Fields, Flushing Airport, and College Point Corporate Park. The two branches merged at Linden Place and 28th Avenue. Following development of the surrounding area, the northern branch begins in the wetlands around Flushing Airport and runs through the former airport site. Several underground pipes, as well as man-made drainage ditches on the New York City Police Academy campus and north of 28th Avenue, carry the creek from the airport to the Flushing River. College Point was a peninsula until the mid-20th century, separated from the rest of Queens by Mill Creek's northern branch.
Horse Brook is a left-bank tributary of the Flushing River, which begins to the west in Elmhurst. The creek then ran close to the path of what is now the Long Island Expressway. Horse Brook was gradually covered in phases through the 20th century. It is now entirely buried, but its path can be traced by the existence of large superblocks, such as those that contain Queens Center Mall, Rego Center's extension, Newtown High School's athletic field, and LeFrak City.
Bridges
The Jewel Avenue crossing, the southernmost crossing of the Flushing River, was built prior to the 1939 World's Fair. It was rebuilt and expanded in 1961 to also pass over the Van Wyck Expressway.The present-day Long Island Expressway crosses the river to the north, slightly east of the site of Strong's Causeway. The causeway may have been first built in 1801, but definitely dates to at least the 1850s. This crossing, located near the confluence of Horse Brook and Flushing Creek, extended Corona Avenue on its zigzag route toward Flushing. For most of the 19th century it was a narrow bridge, wide. By the 1890s, there were plans to replace Strong's Causeway because it sank every year, though taxpayers protested against the proposal. In February 1896, the causeway collapsed into the Flushing Creek. A new bridge opened at the site on September 2 of that year. The causeway was replaced in 1937 by a bridge carrying the then-newly built Horace Harding Boulevard, and was rebuilt into the present Long Island Expressway in the late 1950s.
Meadow and Willow Lakes and the freshwater section of the Flushing River are separated from Flushing Bay by a flood gate or dam called the "Porpoise Bridge" or "Tide Gate Bridge", located just south of the Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch trestle, at the north end of the Flushing Meadows Golf Center. The dam only permits northward flows toward Flushing Bay to pass, while blocking south-flowing waters. As its name implies, the dam also acts as a bridge, carrying pedestrian and vehicular traffic over the creek. It measures wide and long. In 2024, the New York City government began replacing the bridge for $41 million.
The LIRR trestle, located directly to the north of Tide Gate Bridge, contains a small opening for water to pass through. It was built in the late 1930s and early 1940s as an embankment.
Slightly downstream, to the north, the Roosevelt Avenue bridge is a double-deck viaduct completed in 1927. It was originally built as a drawbridge, and was the world's largest fixed-trunnion bascule bridge at its completion, though it is no longer functional. The bridge carries Roosevelt Avenue, as well as the New York City Subway's IRT Flushing Line, which were extended to Flushing–Main Street in 1928, a year after the bridge's completion. This bridge was built with the expectation that Flushing River might be converted into a navigable stream in the future. With the 1939 New York World's Fair, the creek was dammed to the south, and the Roosevelt Avenue bridge ceased to be a usable drawbridge. When the Van Wyck Expressway was being built in the early 1960s, it went directly under the Roosevelt Avenue bridge.
The LIRR's former Whitestone Branch was carried by a single-tracked wooden trestle north of the Roosevelt Avenue bridge, which contained a small drawbridge span. When the branch was abandoned in 1932, the trestle was torn down.
The Northern Boulevard crossing, also called the "Flushing Bridge", is located north of the Roosevelt Avenue bridge and the former Whitestone Branch trestle. Several bridges have existed at the site, the first of which was built 1800–1801, making it the oldest crossing of the Flushing River. Five additional drawbridges were built at this location. A replacement drawbridge was erected in the mid-19th century, followed by swing bridges in 1866 and 1890, an elaborate bascule bridge in 1906, and a simpler bascule bridge in 1939. It was replaced by the current viaduct structure in 1980.
The northernmost crossing of the Flushing River is that of the Whitestone Expressway. A drawbridge opened in 1939 along what was then known as the Whitestone Parkway. In December 1957, the New York state government approved a $9.5 million project to widen part of Whitestone Parkway from Northern Boulevard to the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, including constructing a new Flushing River bridge. The new bridge opened in 1963 and included a modernization of the existing draw span. The current fixed span was built in 2008.