36th St Between 1st Ave and 2nd Ave

Devoid of any buildings, this block was a bit of a mystery when I first started down it. With St. Gabriels Park on the south side and a fenced in "yard" on the north, I was a bit puzzled as to why this land hadn't been developed on. Granted, I'm not complaining, since the reprieve of endless structures is quite nice, but I was confused nonetheless.  As I walked down the street, it became quite clear as I noticed I was right next to the Manhattan-side entrance to the Queens Midtown Tunnel. Obviously, you wouldn't want any sort of high rise sitting directly on top of that.

For an area built exclusively to funnel cars into a hole in the ground, it's a surprisingly nice place to walk around. Compared to the Lincoln Tunnel, it's downright heavenly. I'd attribute much of this to the groomed parkland surrounding the streets.

A whole lineup of busses sat parked on the street, while their operators chatted amongst themselves. It did ruin a little bit of the "nature walk" feel of things – but nothing unforgivable.