Metropolitan Avenue
Metropolitan Avenue is a major east-west street in Queens and northern Brooklyn, New York City. Its western end is at the East River in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the eastern end at Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. The avenue was constructed in 1816 as the Williamsburgh and Jamaica Turnpike, though previously it served as an Indian trail.
There are also streets named Metropolitan Avenue in Staten Island and the Bronx.
History
In 1814, the Williamsburgh Turnpike Company was chartered to upgrade an old Indian trail from Jamaica to the East River into a road, and their work was carried out in 1816. Locally known as the Williamsburgh and Jamaica Turnpike, what became Metropolitan Avenue was a toll road which connected the then villages of Williamsburgh and Jamaica, New York. The road became a farmer's and stage coach route to the Williamsburgh ferries across the East River to Manhattan. The easternmost segment of the present avenue in Williamsburg initially had several names before it was joined to Metropolitan Avenue circa 1858: Bushwick Street, then Woodhull Street, and, later, North Second Street. The City of Brooklyn acquired Metropolitan Avenue from the Williamsburgh Turnpike Road Company in 1872. Several of the neighborhoods through which it passes originated as villages along its length.Route description
Metropolitan Avenue runs mainly through the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and East Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village, Glendale, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill and Jamaica in Queens. The avenue, which ranges between four and six lanes wide, marks the northern borders of Ridgewood and Glendale and the southern border of Maspeth; it also splits Middle Village and passes through Forest Park. The street is long.Transportation
Metropolitan Avenue is served by the following subway stations:- Metropolitan Avenue on the IND Crosstown Line
- Lorimer Street and Graham Avenue on the BMT Canarsie Line
- Middle Village – Metropolitan Avenue on the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line
- Jamaica – Van Wyck on the IND Archer Avenue Line
- The Q54 bus runs along most of the avenue, between Grand Street and either 131st Street or 132nd Street. It doesn’t pass through St. John’s Cemetery.
- The runs between Roebling Street and Union Avenue.
- The runs between Bushwick Avenue and either Rodney Street, or Marcy Avenue.
- Some local buses head to Metropolitan Avenue, then run east from Starr Street to Grandview Avenue while in service to Downtown Brooklyn. The B38 Limited doesn’t serve any portion.
- The run between Forest and Eliot Avenues.
- The and run between 69th Street and Fresh Pond Road, where both terminate.
- East Elmhurst-bound and Forest Hills-bound express buses run from Woodhaven Boulevard to 71st Avenue, where the former heads north and the latter terminate.
Education
, a public high school, opened in 2010 on the avenue in Forest Hills.Other Metropolitan Avenues
Metropolitan Avenue in Parkchester, the Bronx is a boulevard approximately long. Aileen B. Ryan Oval, formerly Metropolitan Oval, is halfway along Metropolitan Avenue in the Bronx.Metropolitan Avenue in Silver Lake, Staten Island, is a side street approximately long.