History Of Queens Recorded In Movement Of Ice Sheets

"During the 200,000-to-20,000-year period we're talking about, a catastrophic event, probably a meteor collision with the Earth, lowered temperatures around the world by five to 10 degrees Fahrenheit," Hadley explained. "Massive snowstorms were generated in the polar regions, and snow and ice began to accumulate. The ice spread like pancake batter, completely covering England and Scotland and much of Europe. Here in North America it spread as far south as St. Louis, Missouri."

The ice sheet, in some places three stories tall, advanced and retreated several times over the course of its stay. Each time it retreated it left a line of sand, gravel, boulders and ground-up rocks in its wake, some as fine as flour (and so named). The first of these lines of material, known as a terminal moraine, left a long ridge across Long Island. The Ronkonkoma terminal moraine created the island of Martha's Vineyard and formed Long Island's South Fork.

The last glacier to visit Long Island, some 50,000 years ago, left the Harbor Hill terminal moraine behind as it retreated. The Harbor Hill moraine created the North Fork and further to the east Cape Cod, which extends off Massachusetts. It intersects the Ronkonkoma moraine at North Shore Towers in Floral Park. Near where the two moraines intersect, at the Grand Central Parkway and 267th Street, is the highest point in Queens, 266 feet above sea level.

The glaciers left their mark on Queens in many ways, Hadley pointed out. "Queens has more people underground than above—five million people are buried in its cemeteries, while there are only 1.5 million of us living in the borough." The cemeteries were established in Queens when religious organizations lobbied for the passage of the Cemetery Act after burial grounds in Manhattan reached capacity. "The glaciated soil was found to be no good for agriculture, so the cemeteries were laid out, most of them in the northern halves of Brooklyn and Queens. Today there are 29 cemeteries in Queens, and they're getting full. Cemetery officials are beginning to stack bodies vertically because they're running out of room," he said.

The highways of Long Island, including the Grand Central Parkway and Northern Boulevard, follow the terminal moraines. The area's first limited access highway exclusively for automobile traffic, the Vanderbilt Parkway, was built in 1926 and ran from Fresh Meadows to the one-time estate of William K. Vanderbilt. "Much of the Vanderbilt Parkway is still preserved, such as a stretch from 199th St. to Winchester Boulevard," Hadley said. The Grand Central Parkway was planned and constructed from 1931 to 1933, he added, and the Interboro Parkway was put through the so-called "cemetery belt" in 1935. Golf courses also proliferate on Long Island because Scotland, where the game originated, was also covered by glaciers during the Laurentian and Wisconsonian ice ages, and the resulting topography, with depressions in the surface and sand traps and water hazards, was created by glacial action.

Where the glaciers stopped, as delineated by the terminal moraines, is an outwash plain, made up of sediments carried in meltwater runoff. The gently sloping and mostly flat outwash plain makes up most of the South Shore of Long Island. "The outwash plain is actually the first prairie topography to hold agriculture in the United States," Hadley said. "Because the land is so flat there are a lot of race tracks—Jamaica, Aqueduct, Belmont— as well because they're all on flat ground." The flat outwash plain topography also made possible the growth of Long Island's aviation industry. Charles Lindbergh took off on his solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris from Roosevelt Field, now a shopping mall, and the lunar landing vehicle from which Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first human beings to set foot on the moon was developed at a Grumman aircraft manufacturing plant built on the outwash plain.

The world's ocean level dropped by 300 to 400 feet during the ice ages because water had been absorbed by the snow pack, Hadley said. A land bridge between Siberia and Alaska appeared, opening the way for animals and humans to move eastward from the Fertile Crescent in Iraq, where the first known civilizations are thought to have appeared. From Alaska, humans gradually moved eastward across the Americas, becoming the Native Americans who greeted the first European settlers. "This migration didn't happen overnight," Hadley said. "It's estimated it took some 500 generations for humans to cross the North American continent. Long Island was probably the last place to be inhabited by humans."

When the glaciers retreated, the ocean level rose and the land bridge across the Bering Strait disappeared under water. Long Island Sound, originally a valley, filled with ocean water and the East River broke through the barriers that had separated it from the rest of present-day New York harbor. The Great Lakes, which had been carved by the glaciers, filled and Niagara Falls formed. The significant landforms of the world looked much the same as they do today.

Glacial topography played a role in the area's political history as well, Hadley said. "In 1776, the Battle of Long Island brought 25,000 soldiers in 500 British ships to the Verrazano Narrows—so many the fleet was called the City of London Afloat. George Washington had 5,000 troops spread along the two terminal moraines. Washington's men guarded four of the five ways to get through the American lines, but the British commander, General Sir William Howe, went through the fifth, circling around through Flatlands and New Lots in Brooklyn while his Hessian mercenaries went through Flatbush. The Americans fled in terror to Brooklyn Heights. Instead of pursuing them further, Howe paused, and under cover of a heavy fog the American army fled to Manhattan and then to White Plains in Westchester county." While Washington might be considered to have lost the Battle of Long Island, Hadley added, in fact his tactical withdrawal helped ensure the success of the American Revolution. "Washington lost only 600 men in the retreat," Hadley said. "Eight years later they came back victorious."

The retreat left Long Island in British hands, however. "For the next eight years the citizens of Long Island had British soldiers quartered on them," Hadley said. "A family housing an officer was paid rent. Enlisted men, however, just moved into a household and didn't pay for anything." Most Queens residents at the time were loyal to the British, Hadley added, and after the War of Independence left for the more hospitable political climate of Nova Scotia. Colonists and soldiers alike faced some harsh conditions during the occupation, however. "Many head of cattle were moved out to the outwash plain pastures in Suffolk County to keep them from the British, so no one could use them for milk or meat," Hadley said. "During the harsh winters Queens and Brooklyn lost many trees which were chopped down for fuel as well."