Flushing Bay

It is bordered on the west by LaGuardia Airport and the Grand Central Parkway, on the south by Northern Boulevard, and on the east by the neighborhood of College Point.

[1] Flushing Bay was an important source of food for the Matinecock tribe of Native Americans and early European settlers, providing fish, shellfish, and waterfowl.

[2] On September 21, 1776, the Colonial patriot Nathan Hale was captured by the British Army near a tavern at Flushing Bay after being fingered as a spy.

[6] On March 5, 2015, Delta Air Lines Flight 1086 skidded off the runway at LaGuardia Airport and stopped a few feet away from Flushing Bay.

Before the airport opened in December 1939, millions of cubic yards of landfill were added to the western shoreline of the bay to create space for runways.

[10] Concerns have arisen given the proximity to a flight path into LaGuardia Airport,[11] although the government of New York City has stated that the design includes adequate safeguards to prevent the facility from attracting flocks of birds that might be harmful to airliners.

[14] Plans for a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) promenade on Flushing Bay were approved by Queens Community Board 7 in 1987, but were delayed due to a lack of funds.

[15] In 1994, a Key House Appropriations subcommittee authorized the money for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to study dredging the Flushing Bay near where the dike was built.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey sought final approval during the summer of that year from the City Council to build the $41-million safety overrun on a 20-acre (8.1 ha) landfill.