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Linden Boulevard

Central Avenue
Looking east atSpringfield Boulevard inCambria Heights
Interactive map of Linden Boulevard
Maintained by	NYCDOT andNCDPW
Length	12.7 mi (20.4 km)[1][1][2] Combined length of three segments
Component highways	NY 27 fromFlatbush toOzone Park
Location	Brooklyn andQueens
West end	Flatbush Avenue inFlatbush
Major junctions	NY 27 inOzone Park I-678 inSouth Ozone Park Cross Island Parkway inCambria Heights Southern State Parkway inNorth Valley Stream
East end	NY 27 inValley Stream

Linden Boulevard is aboulevard inNew York City andNassau County. Its western end is atFlatbush Avenue inBrooklyn, where Linden Boulevard travels as an eastbound-only street toCaton Avenue, where it becomes a two-way street. The boulevard stretches through both Brooklyn andQueens – in addition to southwesternNassau County. This boulevard, especially the area ofCambria Heights betweenSpringfield Boulevard and the Nassau County line represents a smaller version of shopping centers located onJamaica Avenue andQueens Boulevard.

Within Nassau County, the road becomes the unsignedNassau County Route C36. It is known as Linden Boulevard as far east asValley Stream and then becomesCentral Avenue, which was one of several former names of the street in Queens.

Linden Boulevard runs through both Brooklyn and Queens, but is interrupted byAqueduct Racetrack and the street grid inOzone Park, Queens. The street's character is very different in each borough. Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn, betweenFlatbush Avenue and Sapphire Street, is 6.0 miles (9.7 km) long. The five Queens stretches are a combined 6.4 miles (10.3 km) long.

In Brooklyn, between the intersection withKings Highway and Remsen Avenue, and the intersection with 79th Street and South Conduit Avenue one block east of the Brooklyn–Queens border, it is one of the widest boulevards in the entire city, being a multi-median divided, 8-lane wide boulevard, similar to Queens'Woodhaven Boulevard andQueens Boulevard. While the speed limit on the rest of Linden Boulevard was set at 25 miles per hour in 2015, in line with the city speed limit, this section of Linden Boulevard was lowered over time.^[3] The speed limit was lowered to 30 MPH as part of the city's Vision Zero program in 2015, and was subsequently further lowered to 25 MPH in 2019.^[4][5] It is also one of Brooklyn's busiest streets, carrying many trucks, as it is the only direct route for commercial vehicles betweenLong Island and theVerrazzano-Narrows Bridge since commercial traffic is banned from theBelt Parkway, which runs between the same points. The stretch of Linden Boulevard from Caton Avenue toConduit Avenue is part ofNew York State Route 27.

In Queens, it is mostly a simple two-lane, two-way residential street, no wider than the numbered avenues it parallels, and hardly busier until it reaches Cambria Heights, where it serves as a main commercial strip. Between Aqueduct Racetrack andCross Bay Boulevard, there is a seven-block section of the boulevard that is mostly residential but is the only road betweenRockaway Boulevard andConduit Avenue on which traffic can flow east of the elevated railroad. One block west of Cross Bay Boulevard, contained within one block, are two short sections (each less than half a block), that aredead ends. One is off Desarc Road, and the other is located at the intersection of Sitka Street and Pitkin Avenue.^[6]

Conduit Avenue in Queens interrupts Linden Boulevard. The majority of its traffic merges into theNassau Expressway, which starts just east of the Linden Boulevard/Conduit Avenue intersection. Linden Boulevard becomes a dead-end street at Pitkin Avenue; another dead-end stretch of the boulevard is at Desarc Road, one block east of Pitkin Avenue. Linden Boulevard then resumes atCross Bay Boulevard one block east of the dead-end stretches, is interrupted by Aqueduct Racetrack, resumes atRockaway Boulevard inSouth Ozone Park, and continues into Nassau County from there.

Upon entering Nassau County, Linden Boulevard assumes theNassau County Route C36 designation, and runs 2.48 miles (3.99 km) betweenValley Stream andNorth Valley Stream.

CR C36 begins as Central Avenue atSunrise Highway (NY 27) in Valley Stream. From there, it travels north-northwest, soon intersectingMerrick Road (CR 27). It then continues north-northwest, intersecting Remson Avenue, thence meanders its way north-northwest to the Valley Stream–North Valley Stream border, at which point it enters the latter community. It then continues northwest, passing Margaret Drive and thence Fernwood Drive, at which point CR C36 curves towards the north-northwest and then crosses underneath the Southern State Parkway at Exit 13 N-S. At this point Central Avenue veers towards the west-northwest, becoming Linden Boulevard.^[8] CR C36 then continues west-northwest along Linden Boulevard, soon intersecting Elmont Road (CR C71). It then continues west-northwest to theQueens–Nassau County border, where the CR C36 designation ends; Linden Boulevard continues west of this location through Queens and thenceBrooklyn.^[8][9] CR C36 was formerly designated as part of CR 20, prior to the route numbers in Nassau County being altered.^[10]

Linden Boulevard is served by the following bus routes:

• West from Eldert Lane inEast New York, theB13 goes to Euclid Avenue, theB20 goes to Ashford Street, and Crown Heights-boundB14 buses go to Lincoln Avenue.
• TheGateway Mall-boundQ8 runs from Euclid Avenue to Fountain Avenue.
• Bay Ridge-boundB8 buses run from Rockaway Avenue to Church Avenue.
• West from the Linden Boulevard entrance/exit at Conduit Avenue, theB15 goes to Fountain Avenue, while theBM5 express goes to Ashford Street.
• West from 235th Street at the Nassau border, theQ4 goes to Merrick Boulevard, while theQM64 goes to Farmers Boulevard.
• After Merrick, theQM63 takes over, followed by theQM21 andQM65 at Guy R. Brewer Boulevard. All three routes head to Van Wyck Expressway North.
• Until 2010, theQ89 also served a small stretch of Linden Boulevard in Richmond Hill. As of 2025, it is now taken over by theQ51, supplementing Q4 service west of Francis Lewis Boulevard and providing new service towards Rockaway Boulevard.

RappersQ-Tip andPhife Dawg, the founding members of the hip-hop groupA Tribe Called Quest, both grew up on Linden Boulevard in the neighborhood ofSt. Albans, Queens in the 1970s and 80s. They later referred to Linden Boulevard in their songs "Check the Rhime" and "Jazz (We've Got)" (from the albumThe Low End Theory), "Steve Biko (Stir It Up)" (fromMidnight Marauders) and "1nce Again", "Mind Power" and "Get A Hold" (fromBeats, Rhymes and Life). The music video for "Check the Rhime" was mostly filmed on Linden Boulevard, and showed Q-Tip and Phife Dawg rapping above a crowd on the rooftop of a dry-cleaning store on Linden and 192nd Street.^[11] In July 2016, several months after Phife Dawg's death, a mural honoring A Tribe Called Quest was put up on the side of that dry cleaning store.^[11] In November 2016, the section of Linden Boulevard at the corner of 192nd St. was honorarily renamed to Malik 'Phife Dawg' Taylor Way.^[12]

The 1998 filmBelly features Linden Boulevard.

County	Location	mi[1][2]	km	Destinations	Notes
Brooklyn	Flatbush	0.0	0.0	Flatbush Avenue
		0.2	0.32	NY 27 west (Caton Avenue) /Bedford Avenue	NY 27 leaves/joins Linden Boulevard
	East Flatbush	0.5	0.80	Nostrand Avenue
		1.9	3.1	Kings Highway	No eastbound left turns; western terminus of service roads
	Brownsville	2.5	4.0	Rockaway Parkway
	East New York	3.7	6.0	Pennsylvania Avenue
Queens	Ozone Park	6.0	9.7	NY 27 east (Conduit Avenue)	Partial interchange; NY 27 continues east
		Gap in route, including a 0.4-mile (0.6 km) long segment with no major intersections[1]
	South Ozone Park	0.0	0.0	Rockaway Boulevard	FormerNY 27A
		1.1	1.8	I-678 (Van Wyck Expressway) –Kennedy Airport,Whitestone Bridge,Bronx	Exit 3 on I-678; access viaservice roads
	South Jamaica	2.6	4.2	Merrick Boulevard
	Cambria Heights	4.4	7.1	Francis Lewis Boulevard
		4.5	7.2	Springfield Boulevard
		5.5	8.9	Belt Parkway west /Cross Island Parkway north –Kennedy Airport,Whitestone Bridge,Bronx	Exit 25B on Belt / Cross Island Parkways; access via service roads
Queens–Nassau county line	Cambria Heights– North Valley Stream line	5.6 2.48	9.0 3.99	Western terminus of unsigned CR C36
Nassau	North Valley Stream	2.21	3.56	Elmont Road (CR C71) toSouthern State Parkway east
		1.75	2.82	Central Avenue (CR C36) /Southern State Parkway east –East Islip	Exit 13 on Southern Parkway; CR C36 continues south
	Valley Stream	0.00	0.00	NY 27 (Sunrise Highway)	At-grade intersection
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Incomplete access       Route transition

• Media related toLinden Boulevard (Brooklyn) at Wikimedia Commons

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