Evolving Ethnic Settlements in Queens: Historical and Current Forces Reshaping Human Geography

If You Build It, They Will Come: Queens' Infrastructure, Connectivity, and Ethnic Settlement The quiet, rural, mostly farming communities of Queens changed forever on March 30, 1909 when the Queensboro Bridge (recently renamed the Edward Koch Bridge) first connected Long Island with Manhattan, ending centuries of isolation and sending Queens on a trajectory to absorb a diverse multitude of ethnic groups (Figure 1). Two of the most prominent included Northern Boulevard, which began at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge and extended through northern Queens to the Nassau County line, and a southern route that followed Jamaica Avenue from Brooklyn, throughout Queens just south of the terminal moraine - a large ridge that spans across the center of Queens and marks the furthest glacial extent of the last ice age. [...]the "circle the wagons" mentality of some old-time residents.