Beach Channel Drive

Beach Channel Drive
Beach Channel Drive west of Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park
Beach Channel Drive west of Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park
Map
OwnerCity of New York
Maintained byNYCDOT
Length8.0 mi (12.9 km)[1]
LocationQueens
Postal code11697, 11694, 11693, 11692, 11691
Nearest metro stationRockaway Line "A" trainRockaway Park Shuttle
West endRockaway Point Boulevard / Marine Parkway Bridge in Roxbury
Major
junctions
Cross Bay Bridge in Rockaway Beach
East endSheridan Boulevard in Inwood
SouthRockaway Freeway

Beach Channel Drive is the main thoroughfare of the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It extends from the Nassau County border at Inwood westward, to the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge at the end of Jacob Riis Park. From Hammels westward, it follows Jamaica Bay on the northern side of the peninsula.

Beach Channel Drive was opened on November 27, 1927, as a relatively short road west of the current site of the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge.[2] It was later expanded by consolidating a number of existing thoroughfares and constructing some linking roadways.

One of the roads that would become Beach Channel Drive was the launching point for the first transatlantic flight. On May 8, 1919, four United States Navy Navy-Curtis seaplanes took off in Neponsit and headed off to the British colony of Newfoundland, the Azores Islands, and Lisbon, Portugal. On May 31, one of the aircraft, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Albert C. Read, arrived in Plymouth, England.

  1. ^ "Beach Channel Drive" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
  2. ^ "JAMAICA BAY ROAD READY.; Beach Channel Drive Open to Traffic Tomorrow -- Cost $2,000,000". The New York Times. November 26, 1927. Retrieved 2018-11-08.