Alley Pond, a Kettle Pond

When it comes to stream restoration efforts in the New York metro region, Saw Mill River in Yonkers is the local celebrity. But inside an interchange in eastern Queens is a pond that was filled in the 1950s and restored in 2000. It lends its name to one of the largest parks in the city, a vast landscape of forests and wetlands that has its own nature center and adventure course.

In the second half of the 20th century, the view above was nothing more than a loop inside a cloverleaf interchange, later modified to allow for the reforestation of the surrounding slope and restoration of the pond. In the 21st century, if one ignores the highway noise, it has an appearance of an unspoiled landscape.

The pond is located at the southeastern corner of the interchange of Cross Island Parkway and Long Island Expressway. The pond’s waters flowed down from the slopes of The Alley, a five-mile glacially-sculpted valley in eastern Queens. The headwaters collected into alley creek, which flowed north towards Little Neck Bay, an arm of Long Island Sound.

In the colonial period, the site of Alley Pond was a scenic stop on West Alley Road, where travelers stocked up on goods. Gristmills were built on many local streams, harnessing the flow to grind wheat. The last of such mills was built by James Hedges in the 1760s, damming the creek to form Alley Pond. The structure burned down in 1926. Next to the mill, the Burhman general store operated from 1828 to 1929. At the time of its opening, it was the only store in the area. It was demolished after The Alley was acquired by the Parks Department in 1929.

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