The bridge is the western end — let’s call it the beginning — of New York State Route 25, whose local street name changes frequently as it snakes roughly 100 miles from Queens to the eastern tip of Long Island. With parkways and expressways offering far quicker passage, no practical person would opt to drive the length of Route 25 with its changing speed limits and hundreds of traffic lights. But a recent daylong jaunt along the entirety of the route — following the 25 East signs and stopping frequently to sample life along the way — showed how a single road could tie together vastly different worlds extending from the ethnic pockets of Queens to suburban sections of Nassau and Suffolk Counties to bucolic stretches of the North Fork, furthest east. The Queensboro Bridge over the East River led into Queens Plaza and onto Queens Boulevard under the clattering elevated 7 Train, a subway line known as the “International Express” for its passage through some of the most ethnically diverse immigrant neighborhoods in any city in the world.

Source: New York Times August 26, 2018 13:02 UTC