For many years, I have been fascinated with Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the site of the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. It was once just a dusty wasteland, "a valley of ashes" as F. Scott Fitzgerald dubbed it in the Great Gatsby. Robert Moses and other city planners laid out an elaborate scheme to replace these ashes with beauty and excitement. They proposed transforming the site into a World's Fair.

A substantial percentage of the fair's profits were to be allocated toward the creation of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Unfortunately, the 1939 World's Fair failed as a financial venture, leaving the dream for a park unrealized. Subsequently, the site stood largely idle until the early 1960's when a new World's Fair Corporation formed to sponsor a sequel to 1939, with Robert Moses again at the project's helm. Like the first one, the 1964 Fair failed to yield profits, but it left behind several prominent structures which have provided a foundation for the unique urban oasis Moses had envisioned. In 1967 the fairgrounds were officially turned over to NYC Parks & Recreation.

I finally made my first trip to New York City in September of 2008 and was able to visit this famous landmark.

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Seen here is the boardwalk that takes you from the #7 subway train station to the park. Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets as well as their new stadium, Citi Field are also located at this stop at the Willets Point Station. Millions of visitors to the 1964/1965 World's Fair entered through the gates below the folded plate roof seen in the distance.