- Beach Channel Drive
Beach Channel Drive is the main thoroughfare in the Rockaway Peninsula in the
New York City borough ofQueens . It extends from the Nassau County border at Inwood westward to theMarine Parkway Bridge at the end ofJacob Riis Park . From Hammels westward, it follows alongJamaica Bay on the northern side of the peninsula.Originally a relatively short street west of the site of the present-day
Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge , the drive was greatly expanded by consolidating a number of existing thoroughfares and constructing some linking roadways.Beach Channel Drive was also the launching point for the first transatlantic flight. On
May 8 ,1919 , fourUnited States Navy Navy-Curtis model seaplanes had taken off from what is now Beach Channel Drive in Neponsit to Newfoundland,Canada , theAzores Islands , and Lisbon, Portugal. Finally onMay 31 ,1919 , only one plane, piloted by Lt. Commander Albert C. Read, arrived inPlymouth ,England .
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