Long Island City

Industrial and residential district in the northwest of Queens, New York City. Bounded on the east by the East River and on the south by Newtown Creek, it was ideally placed to become a key industrial area of the city, and by the early 19th century the first of hundreds of paint, food processing, shoemaking, stoneworking, and other factories had been established here. Manufacturing still thrives in Long Island City, although many industrial sites have been converted into housing or leisure facilities.

Long Island City separated from Newtown and was incorporated as a city in its own right in 1870. It became a ward of the Queens city borough in 1898. The industrial areas of Astoria and Steinway were situated to the northeast. Modern Long Island City is an important railway and road nexus; from here, the Queensborough Bridge and Queens–Midtown Tunnel cross to Manhattan. Subdistricts include Hunters Point, Sunnyside, and Blissville. The area along the East River opposite Roosevelt Island is known as Ravenswood. Here, some derelict factory sites have been reconfigured, for example as the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum and the Socrates Sculpture Park. Ravenswood is also the site of ‘Big Allis’, the Consolidated Edison company power station that failed during the 1965 New York City blackout; its huge chimneys dominate the Long Island City skyline.