It is bounded by I-678 (Van Wyck Expressway) on the east, Grand Central Parkway on the west, Flushing Bay on the north, and Union Turnpike on the south.

[3] During at least three glacial periods, including the Wisconsin glaciation around 20,000 years ago, ice sheets advanced south across North America carving moraines, valleys, and hills.

During glaciation, what is now Flushing Meadows Park was formed just north of the terminal moraine that runs across Long Island, which consisted of sand, gravel, clay and boulders.

The meadows provided numerous natural resources for settlers, including timber, water, fertile soil, and grass and hay for grazing domestic animals.

[17] Shortly after the American Civil War, the meadows became a waterfront resort due to its natural beauty, and affluent New Yorkers constructed homes in the area.

[15] Around 1907, contractor Michael Degnon, whose firm constructed the Williamsburg Bridge, the Cape Cod Canal, and the Steinway subway tunnel (used by today's 7 and <7>​ trains),[18] purchased large tracts of marsh near Flushing Creek.

[21] Degnon envisioned using the site to create a large industrial port around Flushing Bay, similar to a terminal he developed in Long Island City.

[25] The operation was referred to as a citywide refuse "conveyor belt", while the trains were nicknamed the "Talcum Powder Express" because they often ran uncovered and deposited soot onto the surroundings.

[44] The Brooklyn Ash Removal Company was brought to court by local residents in 1923 for "violation of the sanitary code" due to the smoke emitted from the dumps.

[45][46] As a minor concession, the company opened the Corona Park Golf and Country Club in 1931, on a tract near Nassau Boulevard (today's Long Island Expressway).

[43][47] When Etihad Park was built for Major League Soccer team New York City FC, "The Valley of Ashes" became one of the stadium's nicknames because of its proximity to the dump's site.

[50][51] In 1929, representatives from surrounding communities created a plan to turn the ash dump into a recreational complex, and presented them to Queens Borough President George U.

[63][64] The plans were drafted by Parks Department landscape architect Gilmore David Clarke and his partner Michael Rapuano, designed in Beaux-Arts style.

[74] The pedestrian plan called for numerous wide tree-lined pathways, including a central "Cascade Mall" leading to the Trylon and Perisphere, many of which would be retained for the park.

This was also the original plan for the Fresh Kills and Edgemere landfills, which remained open past their expected tenure and became large and long-term municipal waste sites.

Councilman Edward Sadowsky explained that this was intended to correct an injustice: "The people of Corona have long lived in the aroma of a junkyard or a dump named for their community.

A new plan for the park had been designed by architects Marcel Breuer and Kenzō Tange, but the project did not receive funds due to communication issues with the New York City Comptroller's office.

[113] In 1975, a group of traditionalist Catholics started to assemble at the old Vatican Pavilion exedra monument of the 1964 New York World's Fair to have evening rosary prayer vigils, having been obligated to relocate from Bayside, Queens.

This was led by a woman named Veronica Lueken who claimed she was experiencing visions there of the Virgin Mary, and giving out supposed messages from heaven, frequently apocalyptic in nature.

[124][125] By the mid-1990s, NYC Parks was planning to spend another $19 million to rebuild fountains, build a new ramp to the Willets Point Boulevard station, add three entrances and a cultural walk, and enlarge the Hall of Science.

[132] This fact received attention after five possibly homeless individuals abducted, raped, and threatened to kill a woman who had been sitting with her partner at the nearby Mets–Willets Point subway station.

[134] The $66.3 million Flushing Meadows Corona Park Aquatics Center, encompassing an Olympic-sized public indoor pool and an NHL regulation-sized skating rink, opened in 2008.

[180][181] The land around Meadow Lake contains much of the park's true "parkland", with open grass, picnic and grilling areas, and baseball and cricket fields.

The American Small Craft Association (TASCA)[221] also houses a fleet of over a dozen 14.5-foot (4.4 m) sloop-rigged sailboats, used for teaching, racing, and recreation by the club's members.

[227][228] The many recreational playing fields and playgrounds in the park are used for activities that reflect the wide ethnic mix of Queens; soccer and cricket are especially popular.

Located in David Dinkins Circle, the installation depicted him in a Kangol bucket hat and Cuban link chain, holding up a solar-powered boombox loaded with a cassette of his 1985 debut album, Radio.

These stations are located at the northern end of the park adjacent to the Corona Yard and bus depot, primarily serving Citi Field and the USTA.

[255][256] The fictional "Valley of Ashes" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby (1925) is said to have been inspired by the site of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park when it was still a dump, as well as by nearby Willets Point.

[257] In the movie Men in Black (1997), the saucer-shaped restaurants atop the observation towers of the New York State Pavilion were portrayed as real alien UFOs used as a display to disguise its appearance to the public.

[264] In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Stark Expo—first featured in Iron Man 2 (2010)—takes place at the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park and appears in multiple films in the series, including Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and briefly in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).