It begins as an undivided road at Eldert Lane, a small one-way street that runs along the border between Queens and Brooklyn.

Just south of the parkway, the Queens segment of the Nassau Expressway (NY 878) ends at Rockaway Boulevard, in a Y-shaped, at-grade junction.

Rockaway Boulevard becomes a six-lane divided road at this point and continues southeast to the Queens-Nassau border, where it splits.

One branch continues as Rockaway Turnpike (Nassau County Route 257), and the other leads to the southern part of NY 878.

[2][3][4][5] As Rockaway Boulevard cuts diagonally through the rectangular street grid of southeastern Queens, triangular intersections that were too small to develop were designated as parks.