The Naming Origin of Queens, New York Question: How Did Queens Gets Its Name? Queens is a peculiar name for a borough of New York City. Eddie Murphy's character in Coming to America thought it was place of Queens, the perfect place to find his Queen. Answer: But Queens is named for Queen Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705), the wife of King Charles II of England (1630-1685). Queens was one of the original counties of New York, formed (and named) in 1683, by the British. It included the land that is now Queens and Nassau counties and part of Suffolk. Adjoining Brooklyn was named King County in honor of King Charles II. From 1664 to 1683 the British had administered the territory that would be Queens as part of colonial Yorkshire, which included Staten Island, Long Island, and Westchester. Prior to 1664 the Dutch had the area as part of the New Netherlands. And before the Dutch arrived, Native Americans had many names, some lost and other known, for the areas of Queens.

The Algonquian term Sewanhacky is noted in Dutch colonial documents as the name of western Long Island. continue reading below our video Best Ride Sharing Apps of 2015 Sewanhacky means "Place of Shells." Queens | borough, New York City, New York, United States | Britannica.com borough, New York City, New York, United States Written By: New York 1950s overview Queens, largest of the five boroughs of New York City , coextensive with Queens county, southeastern New York , U.S. The borough lies on western Long Island and extends across the width of the island from the junction of the East River and Long Island Sound to the Atlantic Ocean . The first settlement there was made by the Dutch in 1636 near Flushing Bay, followed by the establishment of Newtown (1642), Far Rockaway (1644), Flushing (1645), and Jamaica (1656). These settlements came under English control in 1664, when Peter Stuyvesant surrendered to an English force acting for the duke of York.

In 1683 Queens county was established as one of the 12 counties of the province of New York and was named to honour the queen consort of Charles II , Catherine of Braganza . Queens (c. 1900), detail of a map of New York City from the 10th edition of … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Queens was primarily rural during the 19th century, but some of its shore communities began attracting summer vacationists. In 1898 Queens borough became part of Greater New York and at the same time assumed its present size when the towns of Hempstead , North Hempstead , and Oyster Bay opposed joining New York City and were chartered within Nassau county. Construction of the Queensboro Bridge (1909) and the Long Island Rail Road Tunnel (1910) spurred the borough’s development. Queens is mostly residential, though it has manufacturing around Long Island City and storage and shipping facilities lining the East River. New York City’s John F. Kennedy International and La Guardia airports are in the borough, as are several branches of the City University of New York and the main campus of St. John’s University, New York.

Area 121 square miles (313 square km). Pop. (2000) 2,229,379; (2010) 2,230,722. Learn More in these related articles: in New York City (New York, United States) Hours NYC Facts The New-York Historical Society and NYC Media, the official network of the City of New York, have partnered to produce a special series of 90 one-minute videos that feature the staff of the New-York Historical Society as they answer some of the most captivating questions ever posed to them about the City’s fascinating and unique history. And now, the series has been nominated for a New York Emmy award ! View Experts Support the New-York Historical Society Help us present groundbreaking exhibitions and develop educational programs about our nation's history for more than 200,000 schoolchildren annually. more questions/facts about new york How Did the Boroughs Get Their Names? In 1609 Robert Guet called the island "Mannahata," after Native American names for the area. Henry Hudson referred to Staten Eylandt after the States General—Netherlands' governing body.

The Bronx is named after Jonas Bronck, who settled in the area in 1639. Brooklyn refers to Breukelen, the Dutch village in the Netherlands. Queens was named after Queen Catherine of Braganza, wife of King Charles II of England (1630-1685). Video embed code: Here's to Queen Catherine, Who Gave Queens a Name - NYTimes.com Here's to Queen Catherine, Who Gave Queens a Name By NADINE BROZAN Published: October 11, 1990 For admirers of royalty, Queens has never offered much. Donald Manes, the King of Queens? Prince Donald of Trump? No. It is time clearly to rescue Catherine of Braganza from the mists of history. Catherine, the 17th-century Portuguese Princess who introduced the fork and orange marmalade to the British Empire, also gave the borough its name. Now more than 300 years later, an effort is under way in Queens to honor the memory of Catherine, the wife of King Charles II of England, by erecting a statue of her, probably in Hunters Point.

In a borough of remarkable ethnic diversity, the project has focused unusual attention on an underrepresented nationality: the Portuguese. It has also given a little something to a politician: On Tuesday evening at a benefit put on in the Plaza Hotel by the Friends of Queen Catherine, Claire Shulman, the Borough President, was inducted into the Order of Vila Vicosa. The award was originated by King John IV, Catherine's father, and was presented to Mrs. Shulman by Dom Duarte, the 42-year-old Duke of Braganza, who would be King of Portugal if Portugal were still a monarchy. ''For a nice Jewish lady from Queens, this is very amusing,'' Mrs. Shulman remarked as she prepared for the festivities. The borough acquired its name in 1683 after England had wrested control of what was then called New Netherlands from the Dutch. The Duke of York and Albany was granted control over the area by his brother, King Charles II, and ''was wise enough to name Kings and Queens Counties for his brother and sister-in-law,'' said Henry Ludder, the Queens borough historian. Like most of her constituents, Mrs. Shulman had long been oblivious to Catherine's rightful place in her borough's identity.

She learned about the Queen, she said, through an exhibition in the Queens Museum honoring Catherine's 350th birthday in 1988 and through a trip to Portugal in May 1989. A Chance to Enhance Relations She came home determined to enhance relations between that Mediterranean country and her borough, despite the paucity of interested constituents. ''We have no Portuguese population here to speak of,'' noted Mrs. Shulman, who has been negotiating with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for a site for the proposed statue. For the modern Duke of Braganza, a descendant of Queen Catherine's brother, King Alphonse VI, recognition of his forebear would distinguish Queens from the other boroughs. ''It is useful for the borough of Queens to have some history, something to give it a different personality,'' said the Duke, who lives in Sintra, Portugal. ''Everybody tends to confuse Queens with Brooklyn. This will set them apart.'' Though she brought to her marriage an immense dowry - $:500,000 in cash, the port cities of Tangier, Morocco, and Bombay and trade rights in all the Portuguese colonies - Queen Catherine was not always beloved in her adopted homeland.

An Underdog at Home She was barren, a condition said to have inspired plots against her. She was a Roman Catholic in a Protestant country. And she was accused of treachery and of trying to poison her husband, who had numerous mistresses and between 10 and 15 illegitimate children. He defended her against those in Parliament who sought to oust her. The Duke rallied to her defense yesterday, calling the accusations ''fabrications.'' ''She organized charity to help the poor,'' he said, ''and promoted an interesting kind of social security.'' Her presence in statue form would certainly bring a touch of authentic royalty to Queens. But on Tuesday evening, Mrs. Shulman had home-grown nobility in mind - Mr. Trump, born in a 23-room house in Jamaica Estates, Queens. As she handed the Duke a poster of Flushing Meadows Park, she said, ''Portugal has His Royal Highness, the Duke of Braganza, and Queens has its prince, too - Donald Trump.'' Photos: Catherine of Braganza, the 17th-century Portuguese Princess for whom the Borough of Queens is named.

(The Bettmann Archive); Borough President Claire Shulman as she was honored by the Friends of Queen Catherine on Tuesday night. (Alan Zale for The New York Times) Queens New York City City in popular culture Queens Neighborhoods The borough of Queens is also the most ethnically diverse county in the United States. As of the 2005 American Community Survey, immigrants comprise 47.6% of its residents. It is estimated that by 2010 the majority of its population will be foreign born.[citation needed] With a population of 2.2 million it is the second most populous borough in New York City (behind Brooklyn) and the tenth most populous county in the United States. The 2.2 million figure is the highest historical population for the borough. Queens was established in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of New York and was named for the then-queen consort, Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II. The borough is often considered one of the more suburban boroughs of New York City. Neighborhoods in eastern Queens have a look and feel similar to the bordering suburbs of western Nassau County.

In its western and central sections, however, Queens is home to many urban neighborhoods and several central business districts. Long Island City, on the Queens' waterfront across from Manhattan, is the site of the Citicorp Building, the tallest skyscraper in New York City outside of Manhattan. History European colonization brought both Dutch and English settlers, as a part of the New Netherlands colony. First settlements occurred in 1635, with colonization at Maspeth in 1642, and Vlissingen (now Flushing) in 1643.Other early settlements included Newtown (now Elmhurst) and Jamaica. However, these towns were mostly inhabited by English settlers from New England via eastern Long Island (Suffolk County) subject to Dutch law. After the capture of the colony by the English and its renaming as New York in 1664, the area (and all of Long Island) became known as Yorkshire. The borough of Queens was originally named after Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese wife of King Charles II of England. Originally, Queens County included the adjacent area now comprising Nassau County. It was an original county of New York State, one of twelve created in 1683.

By 1870, Queens County consisted of six towns: Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, North Hempstead, Hempstead, and Oyster Bay. In 1870, the city of Long Island City was incorporated, consisting of what had been the Village of Astoria and some unincorporated areas in the Town of Newtown. As a result of a referendum, Long Island City, Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, and the Rockaway Peninsula of the Town of Hempstead became the Borough of Queens in New York City on January 1, 1898. The part of Queens County that was not consolidated into New York City, consisting of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay and all of the Town of Hempstead, except the Rockaway Peninsula, was constituted as the new Nassau County in 1899. Queens played a minor role in the American Revolution, as compared to Brooklyn where the Battle of Long Island was largely fought. Queens, like the rest of Long Island, fell under British occupation after the Battle of Long Island in August, 1776 and remained occupied throughout most of the rest of the war.

Under the Quartering Act, British soldiers used the private homes of Queens residents as refuge during the war, against the will of many of the local people. The quartering of soldiers in private homes was banned by the 3rd Amendment to the US Constitution largely because of this. Nathan Hale was captured by the British in Queens before being executed in Manhattan. New York City Search Queens Q Queens Queens is the largest in area, the second-largest in population, and the easternmost of the Five Boroughs which form New York City . The Borough of Queens' boundaries are identical to those of the County of Queens (Queens County), a subdivision of the State of New York in the Northeastern United States . Located on the western portion of Long Island , Queens is home to two of the three major New York City area airports, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia; it is also the location of the New York Mets baseball team; the US Open tennis tournament; Flushing Meadows Park; Kaufman Astoria Studios; Silvercup Studios; and Frank Sinatra School of the Arts founded by Tony Bennett. As of the 2005 American Community Survey, immigrants comprise 47.6% of Queens residents.

With a population of 2.3 million it is the second most populous borough in New York City (behind Brooklyn) and the tenth most populous county in the United States. It is also the nation's fourth-most- densely populated county (after the counties covering Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx). The 2.3 million figure is the highest historical population for the borough. Were each borough an independent city, Brooklyn and Queens would be the fourth- and fifth-largest cities in the United States, respectively. If Queens were its own city it would be the fourth largest by population in the U.S. Queens was established in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of New York and was supposedly named for the Queen consort , Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705), the Portuguese princess who married King Charles II of England in 1662. The borough is often considered one of the more suburban boroughs (in comparison to Manhattan standards) of New York City. Neighborhoods in central Queens (except those situated along Queens Boulevard and the neighborhoods of Flushing and Jamaica), southern Queens, and eastern Queens have a look and feel similar to the bordering suburbs of western Nassau County.

In its northwestern section, however, Queens is home to many urban neighborhoods and several central business districts. Long Island City, on the Queens' waterfront across from Manhattan, is the site of the Citicorp Building, the tallest skyscraper in New York City outside of Manhattan, and the tallest building on geographic Long Island. History European colonization brought both Dutch and English settlers, as a part of the New Netherlands colony. First settlements occurred in 1635, with colonization at Maspeth in 1642, and Vlissingen (now Flushing) in 1643. Other early settlements included Newtown (now Elmhurst) and Jamaica. However, these towns were mostly inhabited by English settlers from New England via eastern Long Island (Suffolk County) subject to Dutch law. After the capture of the colony by the English and its renaming as New York in 1664, the area (and all of Long Island) became known as Yorkshire. The Flushing Remonstrance signed by colonists in 1657 is considered a precursor to the United States Constitution 's provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights.

The signers protested the Dutch colonial authorities’ persecution of Quakers in what is today the borough of Queens. Originally, Queens County included the adjacent area now comprising Nassau County. It was an original county of New York State, one of twelve created on November 1, 1683. On October 7, 1691, all counties in the Colony of New York were redefined. Queens gained North Brother Island, South Brother Island, and Huletts Island (today known as Rikers Island). On December 3, 1768, Queens gained other islands in Long Island Sound that were not already assigned to a county but that did not abut on Westchester County (today’s Bronx County). Queens played a minor role in the American Revolution , as compared to Brooklyn where the Battle of Long Island was largely fought. Queens, like the rest of Long Island, remained under British occupation after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and was occupied throughout most of the rest of the war. Under the Quartering Act, British soldiers used, as barracks, the public inns and uninhabited buildings belonging to Queens residents.

Even though many local people were against unannounced quartering, sentiment throughout the county remained (albeit fairly passively) in favor of the British crown. The quartering of soldiers in private homes, except in times of war, was banned by the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution. Nathan Hale was captured by the British on the shore of Flushing Bay in Queens before being executed by hanging in Manhattan for gathering intelligence. From 1683 until 1784, Queens County consisted of five towns: Flushing, Hempstead, Jamaica, Newtown, and Oyster Bay. On April 6, 1784, a sixth town, the Town of North Hempstead, was formed through secession by the northern portions of the Town of Hempstead. The seat of the county government was located first in Jamaica, but the courthouse was torn down by the British during the American Revolution in order to use the materials to build barracks. After the war, various buildings in Jamaica temporarily served as courthouse and jail until a new building was erected about 1787 (and later completed) in an area near Mineola (now in Nassau County) known then as Clowesville.

The 1850 census was the first in which the population of the three western towns exceeded that of the three eastern towns that are now part of Nassau County. Concerns were raised about the condition and distance of the old courthouse, and several sites were in contention for the construction of a new one. In 1870, Long Island City split from the Town of Newton, incorporating itself as a city, consisting of what had been the Village of Astoria and some unincorporated areas within the Town of Newtown. Around 1874, the seat of county government was moved to Long Island City from Mineola. On March 1, 1860, the eastern border between Queens County (later Nassau County) and Suffolk County was redefined with no discernible change. On June 8, 1881, North Brother Island was transferred to New York County. On May 8, 1884, Rikers Island was transferred to New York County. In 1885, Lloyd Neck, which was part of the Town of Oyster Bay and was earlier known as Queens Village, seceded from Queens and became part of the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County.

On April 16, 1964, South Brother Island was transferred to Bronx County. Borough of Queens The New York City Borough of Queens was authorized on May 4, 1897, by a vote of the New York State Legislature after an 1894 referendum on consolidation. The eastern 280 square miles of Queens that became Nassau County was partitioned on January 1, 1899. Queens Borough was established on Jan 1, 1898. Long Island City, the towns of Newtown, Flushing, and Jamaica, and the Rockaway Peninsula portion of the Town of Hempstead were merged to form the new borough, dissolving all former municipal governments (Long Island City, the county government, all towns, and all villages) within the new borough.

The areas of Queens County that were not part of the consolidation plan, consisting of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay, and the major remaining portion of the Town of Hempstead, remained part of Queens County until they seceded to form the new Nassau County on January 1, 1899, whereupon the boundaries of Queens County and the Borough of Queens became coterminous. With consolidation, Jamaica once again became the county seat, though county offices now extend to nearby Kew Gardens also. From 1905 to 1908 the Long Island Rail Road in Queens was electrified. Transportation to and from Manhattan, previously by ferry or via bridges in Brooklyn, opened up when the Queensboro Bridge was finished in 1909, and with railway tunnels under the East River in 1910. From 1915 onward, much of Queens was connected to the New York City subway system.

With the 1915 construction of the Steinway Tunnel carrying the IRT Flushing Line between Queens and Manhattan, and the emergent expansion of the use of the automobile , the population of Queens more than doubled in the 1920s, from 469,042 in 1920 to 1,079,129 in 1930. Queens was the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair and the 1964 New York World's Fair. Geography Queens County is in the western part of Long Island and includes a few smaller islands, most of which are in Jamaica Bay and form part of Gateway National Recreation Area, which is in turn one of the National Parks of New York Harbor. The Rockaway Peninsula sits between Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean . The western and northern edge of the borough is defined a watery continuum made up of Newtown Creek which flows into the tidal estuary known as the East River, which includes the associated Flushing Bay and Flushing River. The East River opens into Long Island Sound . The mid-section of Queens is crossed by the Long Island straddling terminal moraine created by the Wisconsin Glacier.

This feature evolved into a land use pun due to the siting of many cemeteries. The tallest tree in the New York metropolitan area, called the Queens Giant, is also the oldest living thing in the New York metro area. It is located in northeastern Queens, and is 450 years old and 132 feet (40 m) tall as of 2005. According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 178.3 square miles (461.8 km2); 109.2 square miles (282.8 km2) of this is land and 38.7% is water. Adjacent Counties Bronx County (Borough of The Bronx) Nassau County Kings County (Borough of Brooklyn) New York County (Borough of Manhattan) Richmond County (Borough of Staten Island) Neighborhoods The United States Postal Service divides the borough into five "towns" based roughly on those in existence at the time of the consolidation of the five boroughs into New York City: Long Island City, Jamaica, Flushing, Far Rockaway, and Floral Park.

These ZIP codes do not necessarily reflect actual neighborhood names and boundaries; "East Elmhurst", for example, was largely coined by the USPS and is not an official community. Most neighborhoods have no solid boundaries. The Forest Hills and Rego Park neighborhoods, for instance, overlap. Residents of Queens often closely identify with their neighborhood rather than with the borough or city as a whole. Unlike the situation in other boroughs, postal addresses are usually written with the neighborhood, state, and then zip code rather than the borough or city. The borough is a patchwork of dozens of unique neighborhoods, each with its own distinct identity: Howard Beach, Ozone Park, and Middle Village, are home to large Italian American populations. Rockaway Beach and Woodside have large Irish American populations. Woodside also has a large Hispanic and Asian American population. Astoria, in the northwest, is traditionally home to one of the largest Greek populations outside of Greece , it also has a large Croatian community, and is also home to a growing population of Arabs, South Asian as well as young professionals from Manhattan. Nearby Long Island City is a major commercial center and the home of the Queensbridge housing project.

Maspeth and Ridgewood are home to many European immigrants, including large Polish and other Slavic populations. Ridgewood also has a large Romanian and Hispanic population. Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona make up an enormous conglomeration of Hispanic, Asian American and South Asian communities. Flushing, one of the largest neighborhoods in Queens that has a large East Asian community. The community consists of Chinese and Koreans as well as Hispanics, Italians and Greeks. Richmond Hill, in the south, is often thought of as "Little Guyana" for its large Guyanese community. Rego Park, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens and Kew Gardens Hills have traditionally large Jewish populations (many of these communities are Jewish immigrants from Israel, Iran and the former Soviet Union). Also known for large and growing Indian and Hispanic/ Latino communities, mainly immigrants from India and South America . Jamaica Estates, Fresh Meadows, and Hollis Hills are also populated with many people of Jewish background. Many Asian families reside in parts of Fresh Meadows as well. Jamaica is home to large African American and Caribbean populations.

There are also middle-class African American and Caribbean neighborhoods such as Saint Albans, Cambria Heights, Springfield Gardens, Rosedale, Laurelton and Briarwood along east and southeast Queens. Bellerose and Floral Park are home to a large South-Asian population, predominantly Indian-Americans from the north-Indian state of Punjab and the south-Indian state of Kerala. There are some less diverse, but still prosperous part of Queens, such as South Jamaica. Together, these neighborhoods comprise the most diverse county in the United States. Several of these neighborhoods are home to a diverse mix of many different ethnicities. Government Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Queens has been governed by the New York City Charter that provides for a strong mayor-council system. The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Queens. The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use.

In 1989 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision. Since 1990 the Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Queens' Borough President is Helen Marshall, elected as a Democrat in 2001 and re-elected in 2005. Queens Borough Hall is the seat of government and is located in Kew Gardens. The Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. Sixty-three percent of registered Queens voters are Democrats. Local party platforms center on affordable housing, education and economic development. Controversial political issues in Queens include development, noise, and the cost of housing. There are currently six Democrats representing Queens in the U.S.

Congress : Gary Ackerman represents the fifth district, which includes Corona, Flushing, Jamaica Estates, Bayside, and Little Neck, as well as northwest Nassau County communities from Great Neck east to Roslyn; Joseph Crowley represents Woodside, Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and College Point in seventh district, as well as the east Bronx from Soundview to City Island, also serves as head of the Queens Democratic Party; Gregory Meeks represents areas in the sixth district including Jamaica, Hollis, St.

Albans , Springfield Gardens, Laurelton, Queens Village and Far Rockaway - his is the only congressional district entirely within Queens County; Anthony Weiner represents the ninth district, including Forest Hills, Rego Park, Middle Village, Fresh Meadows, Woodhaven, Ozone Park, Howard Beach and Rockaway Beach, plus such southeast Brooklyn communities as Midwood, Manhattan Beach and Mill Island; Portions of Woodside, Maspeth, and Ridgewood are represented by Nydia Velazquez, whose largely Brooklyn-based district stretches from Red Hook to Bushwick and includes part of Manhattan's Lower East Side; Astoria and Long Island City are roughly geographically half and demographically a third of the 14th district of Carolyn Maloney, the rest of whose district extends across the east side of Manhattan from the East Village through Carnegie Hill. Each of the city's five counties has its own criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. Richard A. Brown, a Democrat, has been the District Attorney of Queens County since 1991. Queens has 12 seats on the New York City Council, the second largest number among the five boroughs.

It also has 14 administrative districts, each served by a local Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for local residents. Although it is heavily Democratic, Queens is considered a swing county in New York politics. Republican political candidates who do well in Queens usually win citywide or statewide elections. Republicans such as former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and current Mayor Michael Bloomberg won majorities in Queens. Republican State Senator Serphin Maltese represented a district in central and southern Queens for twenty years until his defeat in 2008 by Democratic City Councilman Joseph Addabbo. In 2002, Queens voted against incumbent Republican Governor of New York George Pataki in favor of his Democratic opponent, Carl McCall by a slim margin. Queens has not voted for a Republican candidate in a presidential election since 1972, when Queens voters chose Richard Nixon over George McGovern. Since the 1996 presidential election, Democratic presidential candidates have received over 70% of the popular vote in Queens. Economy The economy of Queens is based on tourism, industry, and trade. Because the New York metropolitan area has three major airports, the airspace overhead is among the busiest and most regulated in the world.

John F. Kennedy International Airport, alongside Jamaica Bay, is the country's busiest airport in terms of international travelers. La Guardia Airport, on the East River, mostly serves eastern North America. Queens has witnessed the rebirth of film production — the return of an industry that had departed decades earlier — notably the Kaufman Studios in Astoria and the Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, where a number of notable television shows are made, including Sesame Street. The Queens Museum of Art and the New York Hall of Science are further east, in Flushing Meadows Park — site of both the 1939 New York World's Fair, the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair and the annual US Open tennis tournament at the USTA National Tennis Center. Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team, is located north of the USTA National Tennis Center. The park is the third largest in New York City at 1255 acres (5.08 km2), making it 412 acres (1.67 km2) larger than Central Park in Manhattan.

Several large companies have their headquarters in Queens, including watchmaker Bulova, based in East Elmhurst; internationally renowned piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons in Long Island City; Glacéau, the makers of Vitamin Water, headquartered in Whitestone; and JetBlue Airways, the low-cost airline based in John F. Kennedy Airport, is located in the neighborhood of Forest Hills. Long Island City is a major manufacturing and back office center. Flushing is a major commercial hub for Chinese American and Korean American businesses, while Jamaica is the major civic and transportation hub for the borough Demographics According to the 2005-2007 American Community Survey Estimates, the borough's population was 45.8% White (31.0% non-Hispanic White alone), 20.3% Black or African American (18.4% non-Hispanic Black or African American alone), 0.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 21.7% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 13.4% from some other race and 1.9% from two or more races.

26.2% of the total population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 48.3% of the population were foreign born (another 1.9% were born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or abroad to American parents), 54.5% spoke a language other than English at home and 28.0% had a Bachelor's degree or higher. As of the census of 2000, there were 2,229,379 people, 782,664 households, and 537,690 families residing in the county. The population density was 7,879.6/km² (20,409.0/sq mi). There were 817,250 housing units at an average density of 2,888.5/km² (7,481.6/sq mi).

The racial makeup of the county was 44.08% White, 20.01% Black or African American, 0.50% Native American, 17.56% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 11.68% from other races, and 6.11% from two or more races. 24.97% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. According to a Census Bureau estimate, the population increased to 2,293,007 in 2008. Some main European ancestries in Queens, 2000: Italian: 8.4% Irish: 5.5% Russian: 2.3% Greek: 2.0% In Queens, 48.5% of the population are foreign-born. Of that, 49.5% were born in Latin America , 33.5% in Asia , 14.8% in Europe , 1.8% in Africa and 0.4% in North America .

The Hispanic or Latino population increased 61% between 1990-2006, now accounting for 26.5% of the borough’s total population, for a total of 597,773. Queens has the largest Colombian population in NYC, accounting for 76.6% of the city’s total Colombian population, for a total of 80,116. Queens has the largest Ecuadorian population in NYC, accounting for 62.2% of the city’s total Ecuadorian population, for a total of 101,339. Queens has the largest Peruvian population in NYC, accounting for 69.9% of the city’s total Peruvian population, for a total of 30,825 The Mexican population in Queens has increased 457% to 71,283, the second highest in NYC. Queens is home to 49.6% of NYC's Asian population. Among the five boroughs, Queens has the largest population of Chinese-, Asian Indian-, Korean-, Filipino-, Bangladeshi- and Pakistani-Americans.

Queens has the largest Asian American population-by-county outside of the Western United States : According to the 2006 American Community Survey, Queens ranks 5th among US counties with 477,772 (21.18%) Asian Americans, behind Los Angeles County, California, Honolulu County, Hawaii, Santa Clara County, California, and Orange County, California. The 2000 census showed that the borough is home to the largest concentration of Indian-Americans in the nation, with a total population of 129,715 (5.79% of the borough population), as well as Pakistani-Americans, who number 15,604. Queens has the second largest Sikh population in the nation after California . Chinese: 173,123; 39.8% of the city’s total Chinese population. Indian: 147,525; 64% Asian Indian population. Korean: 65,131; 66.4% of the city’s total Korean population. Filipino: 41,784; 61.3% of the city’s total Filipino population.

Bangladeshi: 18,310; 66% of the city’s total Bangladeshi population. Pakistani: 10,884; 39.5% of the city’s total Pakistani population. According to author Mordecai Plaut, a 2002 UJA/Federation of New York study found that Queens was home to 186,000 Jewish Americans at the time. There were 782,664 households out of which 31.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.9% were married couples living together, 16.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.3% were non-families. 25.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.81 and the average family size was 3.39.

In the county the population was spread out with 22.8% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 33.1% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 92.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.6 males. The median income for a household in the county was $37,439, and the median income for a family was $42,608. Males had a median income of $30,576 versus $26,628 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,222.

About 16.9% of families and 21.6% of the population were below the poverty line , including 18.8% of those under age 18 and 13.0% of those age 65 or over. In Queens the black population earns more than whites on average. Many of these African-Americans live in quiet middle class suburban neighborhoods near the Nassau County border, such as Laurelton and Cambria Heights which have large black populations whose family income is higher than average. Those areas are known for their well kept homes, suburban feel and low crime rate. The migration of whites from parts of Queens has been long ongoing with departures from Ozone Park, Woodhaven, Bellerose, Floral Park, and Flushing. etc (most of the outgoing population has been replaced with Asian Americans). Neighborhoods such as Whitestone, College Point, North Flushing, Auburndale, Bayside, Middle Village, Little Neck, and Douglaston have not had a substantial exodus of white residents, but have seen an increase of Asian population (mostly South Korean).

Queens has recently experienced a real estate boom making most of its neighborhoods very desirable for people who want to reside near Manhattan in a less urban setting. According to a 2001 Claritas study, Queens is the most diverse county in the United States among counties of 100,000+ population. There are 138 languages spoken in the borough. The top languages include: Arabic Culture Queens was an epicenter of jazz in the 1940s. Such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong , Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald found refuge from segregation in the mixed communities of the borough, while a younger generation — Charlie Parker , Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk , Dizzy Gillespie , and others — were developing bebop in the clubs of Harlem. Queens is also one of the epicenters of rap and hip-hop with artists such ranging from Run-D.M.C., A Tribe Called Quest and LL Cool J to Nas and Mobb Deep. Lastly in Queens was where the majority of punk rock band The Ramones were raised.

Western Queens is becoming an artistic hub, including SculptureCenter, the Flux Factory, the Noguchi Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park, Fisher Landau Center, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs , and the Museum of the Moving Image. The P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in the neighborhood of Long Island City is one of the largest and oldest institutions in the United States dedicated solely to contemporary art. In addition to its renowned exhibitions, the institution also organizes the prestigious International and National Projects series, the Warm Up summer music series, and the Young Architects Program with The Museum of Modern Art. The current poet laureate of Queens is Ishle Yi Park. Queens is home to many other cultural institutions, including among others: Queens Museum of Art [| Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL)] [ Jamaica Performing Arts Center] Bowne House Kupferberg Center for the Arts [ New York Hall of Science Noguchi Museum [ Queens Theatre in the Park] [ Flushing Town Hall]Home of jazz in Queens Thalia Spanish Theater [ Queens was the setting for path breaking 1970s sitcom, All in the Family. It is featured in the Spider-Man comics and films as the home of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson.

On Ugly Betty it is also home to Betty and her family. TV shows shot in Queens include Sesame Street (at Kaufman Astoria Studios) and 30 Rock (at Silvercup Studios, although the show's fictional setting is across the East River in Manhattan). The two studios have also served as the site for many movies, music videos and commercials. Sports Queens was the home of Shea Stadium, the former home of New York Mets of Major League Baseball and the New York Jets of the National Football League, as well as the temporary home of the New York Yankees and the New York Football Giants. Citi Field, the Mets' current home, is located adjacent to where Shea once stood. The US Open tennis tournament is played at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, located just south of Citi Field in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The US Open was formerly played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills. Queens is also the home of Aqueduct Racetrack, located in Ozone Park. Just over the Queens line (in Nassau County) is Belmont Park Race Track, the home of the Belmont Stakes .

In the past, Extreme Championship Wrestling has been held at an Elks lodge in Elmhurst. Food Queens is home to restaurants from all cultures. A wide variety of foods from all different cultures, particularly Chinese, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Filipino, Indian, Haitian, Korean, Mexican restaurants, along Roosevelt Avenue; Dominican food in Corona and African-American cuisine in Jamaica. Other cultures, such as Greek, Arab, Latin American, and Southeast Asian, have very prominent standings in Astoria. There are several Bukharian restaurants that serve Central Asian food all around Forest Hills and Rego Park. Transportation Queens has crucial importance in international and interstate air traffic. Two of the New York metropolitan area's three major airports are located there; LaGuardia Airport is in northern Queens, while John F. Kennedy International Airport is to the south on the shores of Jamaica Bay. AirTrain JFK provides a rail link between JFK and local rail lines. A commuter train system, the Long Island Rail Road, operates 20 stations in Queens with service to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island. Jamaica Station is a hub station where all the lines in the system but one (the Port Washington Branch) converge. It is the busiest commuter rail hub in the United States.

Sunnyside Yard is used as a staging area by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit for intercity and commuter trains from Penn Station in Manhattan. Twelve New York City Subway routes traverse Queens, serving 81 stations on seven main lines. The A, G, J, and M routes connect Queens to Brooklyn without going through Manhattan first. The F, N, and R trains connect Queens and Brooklyn via Manhattan, while the E, V, W, and 7 connect Queens to Manhattan only. About 100 local bus routes move people around within Queens, and another 15 express routes shuttle commuters between Queens and Manhattan, under the MTA New York City Bus and MTA Bus brands. Queens is traversed by three trunk east-west highways. The Long Island Expressway (Interstate 495) runs from the Queens Midtown Tunnel on the west through the borough to Nassau County on the east. The Grand Central Parkway, whose western terminus is the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, extends east to the Queens/Nassau border, where its name changes to the Northern State Parkway.

The Belt Parkway begins at the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn, and extends east into Queens, past Aqueduct Racetrack and JFK Airport. On its eastern end at the Queens/Nassau border, it splits into the Southern State Parkway which continues east, and the Cross Island Parkway which turns north. There are also several major north-south highways in Queens, including the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (Interstate 278), the Van Wyck Expressway (Interstate 678), the Clearview Expressway (Interstate 295), and the Cross Island Parkway. Streets The streets of Queens are laid out in a semi-grid system, with a numerical system of street names (similar to Manhattan and the Bronx). Nearly all roadways oriented north-south are "Streets", while east-west roadways are "Avenues", beginning with the number 1 in the west for Streets and in the north for Avenues.

In some parts of the borough, several consecutive streets may share numbers (for instance, 72nd Street followed by 72nd Place, or 52nd Avenue followed by 52nd Road, 52nd Drive, and 52nd Court), often causing confusion for non-residents. In addition, incongruous alignments of street grids, unusual street paths due to geography, or other circumstances often lead to the skipping of numbers (for instance, on Ditmars Boulevard, 70th Street is followed by Hazen Street which is followed by 49th Street). This confusion stems from the fact that many of the village street grids of Queens had only worded names, some were numbered according to local numbering schemes, and some had a mix of words and numbers. In the early 1920s a "Philadelphia Plan" was instituted to overlay one numbered system upon the whole borough. Train stations were only partly renamed, thus now share dual names after the original street names. On the number 7 line in Sunnyside, there are 40th-Lowery St., 46th-Bliss St., 52nd St.-Lincoln Ave. and so forth.

Numbered roads tend to be residential, although numbered commercial streets are not rare. A fair number of streets that were country roads in the 18th and 19th centuries (especially major thoroughfares such as Northern Boulevard, Queens Boulevard, Hillside Avenue, and Jamaica Avenue) carry names rather than numbers, typically though not uniformly called "Boulevards" or "Parkways". The Rockaway Peninsula does not follow the same system as the rest of the borough and has its own numbering system. Streets are numbered in ascending order heading west from near the Nassau County border, and are prefixed with the word "Beach." Streets at the easternmost end, however, are nearly all named. Another deviance from the norm is Broad Channel; it maintains the north-south numbering progression but uses only the suffix "Road," as well as the prefixes "West" and "East," depending on location relative to Cross Bay Boulevard, the neighborhood's major through street. The other exception is the neighborhood of Ridgewood, which for the most part shares a grid and house numbering system with the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick.

The grid runs east-west from the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch right-of-way to Flushing Avenue; and north-south from Forest Avenue in Ridgewood to Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn before adjusting to meet up correctly with the Bedford-Stuyvesant grid at Broadway. All streets on the grid have names. Waterways Queens is connected to the Bronx by the Bronx Whitestone Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and the Hell Gate Bridge. Queens is connected to Manhattan by the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, the Queensboro Bridge, and the Queens Midtown Tunnel; and to Roosevelt Island by the Roosevelt Island Bridge. While most of the Queens/Brooklyn border is on land, the Kosciuszko Bridge crosses the Newtown Creek connecting Maspeth to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The Pulaski Bridge connects McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint to 11th Street, Jackson Avenue, and Hunters Point Avenue in Long Island City. The Greenpoint Avenue Bridge connects Greenpoint and Long Island City avenues of the same name, which, east of Queens Boulevard (NY-25), becomes Roosevelt Avenue. A lesser bridge connect Grand Avenue in Queens to Grand Street in Brooklyn.

The Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge traverses Jamaica Bay to connect the Rockaway Peninsula to the rest of Queens. Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge links the western part of the Peninsula with Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn's longest thoroughfare. Both crossings were built and continue to be operated by what is now known as MTA Bridges and Tunnels. The IND Rockaway Line parallels the Cross Bay, has a mid-bay station at Broad Channel which is just a short walk from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, now part of Gateway National Recreation Area and a major stop on the Atlantic Flyway. One year-round scheduled ferry service connects Queens and Manhattan. New York Water Taxi operates service across the East River from Hunters Point in Long Island City to Manhattan at 34th Street and south to Pier 11 at Wall Street . During baseball season, New York Waterway ferries operate to Shea Stadium for New York Mets weekend home games. In 2007, limited weekday service was begun between Breezy Point, the westernmost point in the Rockaways, to Pier 11 via the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Summertime weekend service provides service from Lower Manhattan and southwest Brooklyn to the peninsula's Gateway beaches.

Education Elementary and secondary education Elementary and secondary school education in Queens is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. Public schools in the borough are managed by the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States. Most private schools are affiliated to or identify themselves with the Roman Catholic or Jewish religious communities. Postsecondary institutions Bramson ORT College is an undergraduate college in New York City operated by the American branch of the Jewish charity World ORT. Its main campus is in Forest Hills, Queens, with a satellite campus in Brooklyn. LaGuardia Community College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY), is known as "The World's Community College" for its diverse international student body representing more than 150 countries and speaking over 100 languages. The college has been named a National Institution of Excellence by the Policy Center on the First Year of College and one of the top three large community colleges in the United States. The college hosts the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. Queens College is one of the elite colleges in the CUNY system.

Established in 1937 to offer a strong liberal arts education to the residents of the borough, Queens College has over 16,000 students including more than 12,000 undergraduates and over 4,000 graduate students. Students from 120 different countries speaking 66 different languages are enrolled at the school, which is located in Flushing. Queens College is also the host of CUNY's law school. The Queens College Campus is also the home of Townsend Harris High School. Queensborough Community College, originally part of the State University of New York, is in Bayside and is now part of CUNY. It prepares students to attend senior colleges mainly in the CUNY system. St. John's University is a private, coeducational Roman Catholic university founded in 1870 by the Vincentian Fathers. With over 19,000 students, St. John's is known for its pharmacy, business and law programs as well as its men's basketball and soccer teams. Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology is a private, cutting edge, degree granting institution located across the Grand Central Parkway from LaGuardia Airport.

Its presence underscores the importance of aviation to the Queens economy. York College is one of CUNY's leading general-purpose liberal arts colleges, granting bachelor's degrees in more than 40 fields, as well as a combined BS/MS degree in Occupational Therapy. Noted for its Health Sciences Programs York College is also home to the Northeast Regional Office of the Food and Drug Administration . Public Library The Queens Borough Public Library is the public library system for the borough and one of three library systems serving New York City. Dating back to the foundation of the first Queens library in Flushing in 1858, the Queens Borough Public Library is one of the largest public library systems in the United States. Separate from the New York Public Library, it is composed of 63 branches throughout the borough. In fiscal year 2001, the Library achieved a circulation of 16.8 million. First in circulation in New York State since 1985, the Library has maintained the highest circulation of any city library in the country since 1985 and the highest circulation of any library in the nation since 1987.

The Library maintains collections in many languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Haitian Creole, Polish, and six Indic languages, as well as smaller collections in 19 other languages. (Wikipedia) How Queens Became New York City's Largest Borough - Curbed NY How Queens Became New York City's Largest Borough Rec Some neighborhood names appear to be jokes . Some have stuck around for centuries , despite changing connotations. Some shift with the winds of gentrification. Welcome to Blurred Lines, in which writer Keith Williams studies New York City's changing neighborhood boundaries. From an 1891 map. Notice how few roads have been built in Queens compared with Manhattan and Brooklyn. ( NYPL ) Last year, we brought you a post on the evolution of Kings County's municipalities from 1664, when the English took over for the Dutch, through its annexation by New York City as the Borough of Brooklyn in 1898. During that same span, its neighbor to the north and east, Queens County, also underwent a number of changes—including the loss of nearly three-quarters of its area. With a land area of 109 square miles , Queens is by far the largest of the five boroughs.

(Its population of 2.3 million is second to Brooklyn by 300,000.) Had Queens County maintained its original size, however, it would be almost four times bigger; what is now known as Nassau County broke away in 1899, making the County of Queens coterminous with the one-year-old Borough of Queens. Before we begin, a bit of background is needed. First: just as with Brooklyn and Manhattan, there's been a lot of land-filling over the years, so the geographic extremities of these maps won't be true to what they were in the 19th century (hello, airports!). For practical purposes, changing water boundaries have been left out. And second: a few borders were based on now-covered creeks and now-obliterated roads. As such, a few of the boundaries on these maps (particularly the ones covering the entire county) are rough approximations. Like Kings, Queens County was established in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of the Colony of New York. It was named for Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese queen consort of England's King Charles II.

At the outset, it consisted of five towns: Hempstead (established by the English in 1644): named either for the Dutch town Heemstede, near Haarlem and Amsterdam, or for the English town Hemel Hempstead, home of one of the co-founders. Flushing (Dutch, 1645): originally Vlishing, from Vlissingen, a Dutch town on the North Sea. In 1657, 30 Vlishing residents sent an appeal to Director-General Peter Stuyvesant urging him to lift a ban on Quakers. Many view this document, known as the Flushing Remonstrance , as the birth of religious freedom in the New World. Jamaica (Dutch, 1656): originally Rustdorp ("rest town"), later renamed after Yameco, "beaver" in the Lenape language. It has a distinct derivation from the Caribbean nation: that comes from the Arawak word Xaymaca ("land of wood and water"). Newtown (Dutch, 1652): originally Middenburgh; populated by settlers from nearby Maspat (today's Maspeth).

Changed to Hastings in 1663 upon the English takeover, then New Towne in 1665. Oyster Bay (English, 1667): after nearly thirty years of boundary disputes between English and Dutch settlers in the area between Hempstead and today's Suffolk County, the English government of New York incorporated the township. Before the British took control of the greater region in 1664, Oyster Bay (the waterway, that is) marked the dividing line between western Long Island (part of New Amsterdam) and eastern Long Island (part of Connecticut). That line more or less divides Nassau and Suffolk Counties today, but when Dutch power had begun to slip, there was some confusion over whether the towns in the future Queens County would be part of New York or Connecticut. (All of Long Island was turned over to New York in December 1664.) In 1784, the northern part of Hempstead broke away , giving itself the inventive name of North Hempstead. This stemmed from a Loyalist-Patriot divide in the Revolutionary War; the northern half declared "independence" in 1775, as Hempstead wished to remain part of the British Empire.

The county seat was originally in Jamaica; after the British burned the courthouse in the Revolution, the seat moved to the village of Mineola, in North Hempstead, close to the geographic center of the county. (For context, Mineola is about 10 miles due east of today's Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, and 16 miles due east of today's Long Island City waterfront—as the crow flies. Imagine making that journey on horseback—or foot—over winding, muddy paths.) But as ferry service became more reliable in the early 19th century with the introduction of the steam engine, western Queens became more popular. Much of that growth came at a place called Hunter's Point, which developer (and president of Union College) Eliphalet Nott divided into lots starting in the 1830s . Ferry service came in 1858 , allowing travelers for the first time a two-seat trip from Manhattan (by ferry) to Flushing (by train); by 1869, Hunter's Point had developed a gravity of its own. Residents clamored for incorporation as a village so that they could oversee their own development, rather than listen to the bigwigs of Newtown.

Due to opposition by manufacturers, who feared increased taxes, this push was defeated by the state Legislature . Undeterred, Hunter's Point formed an alliance with neighboring villages, particularly Astoria, and the next year succeeded in forming a new entity: Long Island City. The county seat moved to there in 1874, much to the chagrin of the residents of rural eastern Queens County. The boundary between Long Island City and Newtown was an old path called the Bowery Bay Road , which ran from the now-destroyed Penny Bridge over Newtown Creek to Bowery Bay in Long Island Sound. While most of the winding route was obliterated by the grid that eventually came into place, a few vestiges remain, among them Celtic Avenue in Woodside, the hypotenuse of John Downing Park in Woodside, Hobart Street in Long Island City, and 19th Road in East Elmhurst. (Fun fact: "Bowery" comes from the Dutch word bouwerij, "farm.") "City" was a bit of a misnomer for the area.

Unlike the City of Brooklyn, which was rapidly approaching a population of one million, Long Island City had just 17,000 residents by 1880. It was really just a confederation of villages with plenty of empty space between them. From an 1891 map. Notice how few roads have been built in Queens compared with Manhattan and Brooklyn. ( NYPL ) The city's government was basically neutered, as there was a very low cap on how much money it could raise. Rather than use normal budgetary means, officials could create commissions to address the growing area's numerous problems, such as lack of fresh water and the flattening of hilly terrain. This provided plenty of opportunities for graft. A few parcels of land were wrested away from Queens County in the 1880s: New York County (Manhattan) took North Brother Island (1881) and Rikers Island (1884), while in 1885, Lloyd Neck joined Suffolk County. South Brother Island would be transferred to the Bronx in 1964. In 1896, consolidation was looming.

Newtown changed its name to Elmhurst in order to distance itself from the wasteland known as Newtown Creek, which had been an industrial dumping ground since the Civil War. Among the first polluters had been Peter Cooper, who was ordered to move his glue factories there from Manhattan in the 1850s. The vote to create a consolidated City of New York had taken place two years prior, in 1894. Overall, 62 percent of voters in the future borough of Queens were in favor of the consolidation plan, but the outcomes varied widely among the various jurisdictions. Long Island City, population 35,000, voted overwhelmingly for consolidation, with 82 percent in favor. The Democratic machine had been incredibly corrupt, serving bloated contracts to contributors and doing a terrible job improving infrastructure. The water supply was so poorly managed that fire insurance was much higher than in other municipalities along the East River. Of note in this part of history was three-time mayor Patrick "Battle-Axe" "Paddy" Gleason, who formed a private water company in an attempt to gouge his own citizens, among many other exploits. Flushing, on the other hand, had 55 percent of voters against the proposal.

Residents feared an incursion from Tammany Hall ; the town had also built an advanced infrastructure, including a steady water supply and systems for sewage and gas. Unfortunately for them, the referendum was simply advisory. On January 1, 1898, the western part of Queens County—Long Island City, Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, and the Rockaways portion of Hempstead—became the Borough of Queens. This created a strange situation for the remaining parts: they were technically still part of Queens County, but the bulk of the county was now controlled by New York City. On April 28, 1898, the state Legislature approved the creation of a new county, which some in the eastern half of the former Queens County had wanted for nearly 60 years . It was called Nassau, taking the original name for Long Island, which honored William III of the House of Orange-Nassau.

It became the 61st county in New York State, and the first created in 45 years; only Bronx County, which broke away from New York County in 1914, is younger.* Many in Queens did not like the new partition, as county officials wanted to sell off land in Nassau to pay off debts incurred before the split. In fact, in October 1898, the county clerk refused to grant certificates to the nominees for elected offices in Nassau County. In doing so, he cited his belief that the legislation creating the new county was unconstitutional. He was promptly overruled in court , and there is no evidence that he pursued the matter any further (or subsequently went to jail for contempt). Rawson-33rd Street on the IRT Flushing Line, 1917. ( NYC Transit Forums ) The opening of the Queensboro Bridge (1909) and the completion of a railway tunnel under the East River (1910) spurred development even further.

Compared with today, politicians were incredibly forward-thinking when it came to transit: the IRT Flushing Line (today's 7 train) was built through open fields in anticipation of future development – the best way to get land on the cheap. There were a few changes to both counties in the early 20th century. In 1917, Glen Cove, on Long Island Sound, broke away from Oyster Bay and became an independent city. Hempstead lost Long Beach in 1922 . And in 1925, Brooklyn and Queens redefined their border to align with the street grid. Even today, there are reminders of the original boundaries of Queens. ZIP codes are mostly aligned with those borders: what was once Long Island City is 111xx, Newtown and Flushing share 113xx, Jamaica is 114xx, and Far Rockaway (what used to be part of Hempstead) is 116xx. Fun fact along those lines: Ridgewood and Glendale used to share ZIP code 11227 with Bushwick, Brooklyn.

But after the riots in the wake of the blackout of 1977, residents found their insurance rates rising, and they successfully petitioned Representative Geraldine Ferraro to grant them a 113xx ZIP code. *Correction: this post originally said Bronx County was separated from Westchester County in 1914. What is now Bronx County was originally part of Westchester County, but the land was annexed by New York County (now coterminous with the Borough of Manhattan) in 1874 and 1895. NEW YORK DAY BY DAY - NYTimes.com NEW YORK DAY BY DAY By Clyde Haberman and Laurie Johnston Published: October 12, 1982 Why Queens Is Queens With yesterday given to commemorating America's earliest moment, it was easy for Queens to get lost in the shuffle. But Queens is beginning its 300th year as a county, and the borough president, Donald R. Manes, appointed a commission of local residents to help come up with ideas for celebrating the anniversary in 1983. Among the more likely events are lessons in the history of the borough - the city's largest, with 109.6 square miles.

In 1683, Queens was one of a dozen counties formed as part of the British province in New York, although in those days it included territory that is now Nassau County. It was named after Catherine of Braganza, Queen to King Charles II. Getting New York real estate named after them was quite a royal pastime. Charles had his own county - Kings, naturally - and his son, the Duke of Richmond, lent his name to the county better known as Staten Island. The King's brother, James, was Duke of York. Apparently, it was left to Bronx County to get by without family help.

Question: The New York borough of Queens is named after which British Queen consort?
Answer: CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA