Big Bush Playground / Bush Park

Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia designated the land as parkland in 1936, but construction of the future Brooklyn-Queens Expressway interrupted those plans; the Kosciuszko Bridge of 1939 was the first piece of that highway, and the final bit of its Queens section, including the segment through Woodside, was completed in 1964. Parks Commissioner August Heckscher and Queens Borough President Sidney Leviss broke ground for the $460,000 project on July 13, 1971, and Commissioner Stern named the grounds Bush Park on June 18, 1987. NYC Parks writes that "The BQE, Bush Park, and Little Bush Park now share the land that was once Bush Street."