It's been a while!

In the early 1940s, the Rockaway Freeway (which, with its many at-grade street intersections, is a freeway in name only) was built on the former right-of-way of the Long Island Rail Road, which had recently been elevated above street level on the structure you see here. It's a notoriously dangerous road, although it was made considerably less so in the late 1990s when it was reduced from two lanes in each direction to one.

The rail line was abandoned by the LIRR in 1955, but it reopened the following year as part of the subway system. The section in the photograph is currently served by the A train; the Rockaway Park Shuttle operates on the western portion of the line.

Here comes the A train right now.

Like many of the vehicles lining the streets along the beach, this one looks like it arrived in town this morning bearing a surfboard or two.

"The waves can pack a deceptive and grumpy wallop."

Arverne by the Sea

Take a gander at the latest Chick tract to hit the streets.

This preserve is named for René and Jean Dubos, a husband-and-wife pair of microbiologists and environmentalists. René, who discovered "the first clinically tested antibiotic agent", was also a Pulitzer-winning author "who brought a profound humanity to the study of man's harm to himself through environmental pollution", and he's often given credit for coining the phrase "Think Globally, Act Locally."

I keep seeing them every 100 feet or so along the edge of the wildlife sanctuary.

It's an artificial cow with an automatic vacuuming system.

You can see JFK's control tower off in the distance.

A million miles away from the faint skyline of Manhattan

Indeed!

That bridge in the background carries the A train over Jamaica Bay from Subway Island (yes, that's what it's called!) to the Rockaways.

if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.

Is there anger?

(I think it's a concrete plant.)

On display outside the Engine 265/Ladder 121/Battalion 47/EMS 47 firehouse ("Best on the Beach"), this 1897 bell dates back to the old village of Arverne-by-the-Sea, which was once a happening beach resort before it was leveled by the city in the late 1960s and then resurrected, without the hyphens, as a new mixed-use development over the past several years.

That's gotta be rough on business at the liquor store.