Queens

Queens, borough of New York City (1990 pop. 1,951,598), land area c.109 sq mi (293 sq km), on the western portion of Long Island, SE N.Y., coextensive with Queens co.; settled by the Dutch 1635, established as a New York City borough 1898. Having the largest area of the city's boroughs, it extends from the junction of the East River and Long Island Sound in the north, across Long Island to Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean in the south. It is connected with Manhattan by the Queensboro Bridge, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, and railroad and subway tunnels; with the Bronx and Manhattan by the Triborough Bridge; with the Bronx by the Hell Gate railroad bridge and by the Bronx-Whitestone and Throgs Neck bridges. The borough has c.200 mi (320 km) of waterfront. It is industrialized in Long Island City; there and at Sunnyside are extensive railroad yards. Astoria, Flushing, Queens Boulevard, Rego Park, and Jamaica (seat of St. John's Univ.) are industrial and commercial centers. Among the many residential communities are Flushing (Queens College is there), Forest Hills, and Kew Gardens. The Rockaways are a popular beach area.

The first settlements were made by the Dutch in 1635. Queens co. was organized in 1683, the main settlements were Flushing, Jamaica, and Newtown (later Elmhurst). Several buildings of the 17th and 18th cent. remain. One of the first commercial nurseries in the country was established c.1737, and the community's collection of trees still includes several rare species. In the American Revolution, British troops held the area after the battle of Long Island (1776). The western portions of Queens co. voted to join New York City in 1898; the eastern section became Nassau co. In the 20th cent. growth was spurred with the opening of the Queensboro Bridge (1909) and a railroad tunnel (1910). After World War II there was a boom in housing construction.

Queens is the most ethnically diverse county in the United States, with large populations of immigrants, primarily E and S Asians and Hispanics. It is the site of La Guardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport. Two World's Fairs (1939-40; 1964-65) were held in Flushing Meadow Park. Also in the borough are the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center; Aqueduct racetrack; Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets (baseball); and the United States Tennis Association Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, site of the U.S. Open. Parts of Jamaica Bay and the Rockaway peninsula (including former U.S. Fort Tilden) are included in the Gateway National Recreation Area.

Borough (pop., 2000: 2,229,379) of New York City, coextensive with Queens county, southeastern New York, U.S. The largest of the five boroughs, it lies on western Long Island and extends across the width of the island from the junction of the East River and Long Island Sound to the Atlantic Ocean. The first settlements, made by the Dutch 1636–56, came under English control in 1664. It became a county in 1683 and a borough in 1898. Queens was primarily rural during the 19th century, but some of its shore communities began attracting summer vacationers. Development was spurred by the construction of the Queensboro Bridge and the Long Island Railroad tunnel. It is mostly residential, though it has extensive manufacturing around Long Island City and storage and shipping facilities lining the East River. It is the site of New York City's major airports, Kennedy and La Guardia.

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Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was first founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou (the Queen of Henry VI), and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville (the Queen of Edward IV). This dual foundation is reflected in its orthography: Queens', not Queen's, although the full name is The Queen's College of St Margaret and St Bernard in the University of Cambridge.

Queens' is the second southernmost of the colleges on the banks of the Cam, primarily on the East bank. (The others - in distance order - are King's, Clare, Trinity Hall, Trinity, St John's, and Magdalene to the north and Darwin to the south.)

The President's Lodge of Queens' is the oldest building on the river at Cambridge (ca. 1460). Queens' College is also one of only two colleges with buildings on its main site on both sides of the Cam (the other being St John's).

The Mathematical Bridge

The Mathematical Bridge connects the older half of the college (affectionately referred to by students as The Dark Side) with the newer half (The Light Side). It is one of the most photographed scenes in Cambridge; the typical photo being taken from the nearby Silver Street bridge. Popular fable is that the bridge was designed and built by Sir Isaac Newton without the use of nuts or bolts, and at some point in the past students or fellows attempted to take the bridge apart and put it back together. The myth continues that the over-ambitious engineers were unable to match Newton's feat of engineering, and had to resort to fastening the bridge by nuts and bolts. This is why nuts and bolts can be seen in the bridge today. This story is false: the bridge was built in 1749 by James Essex the Younger (1722–1784) to the design of William Etheridge (1709–1776), 22 years after Newton died. It was later rebuilt in 1866 and 1905, albeit to the same design. It was never disassembled, as the weight of the students on the bridge would cause it to collapse.

Notable alumni

See also Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge

Name	Birth Year	Death Year	Career
Desiderius Erasmus	1466	1536	Humanist and theologian
John Lambert		1539	Protestant martyr
John Whitgift	1530	1604	Archbishop of Canterbury
Thomas Digges	1546	1595	English astronomer
John Hall		1635	Physician
John Goodwin	1594	1665	Preacher
Thomas Horton	1603	1649	Soldier
Charles Bridges	1794	1869	Preacher and theologian
Alexander Crummell	1819	1898	Priest
Thomas Nettleship Staley	1823	1898	Bishop of Honolulu
Frank Rutter	1836	1937	Art critic and curator
Osborne Reynolds	1842	1912	Fluid dynamicist
Charles Villiers Stanford	1852	1924	Composer
T. H. White	1906	1964	Writer
Arthur Mooring	1908	1969	Knight of the British Empire
M. S. Bartlett	1910	2002	Statistician
Cyril Bibby	1914	1987	Biologist
Arnold W. G. Kean	1914	2000	Development of civil aviation law
Abba Eban	1915	2002	Israeli politician
Peter Down	1927		Architect
Kenneth Wedderburn	1927		Labour life peer
Peter Redgrove	1932	2003	Poet
David Hatch	1939	2007	Radio executive
Tom Lowenstein	1941		Poet
Richard Dearlove	1945		Former head of MI6
Lord Eatwell	1945		British economist
Derek Lewis	1946		Former Chief Executive and Director General of the Prison Service
John E. Baldwin	1949		Radio-astronomer
Graham Swift	1949		Author
Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh	1950		Judge
John McCallum	1950		Canadian politician
Charles Leslie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton	1951		Lord Chancellor
Paul Greengrass	1955		Writer and film director
Michael Foale	1957		Astronaut
Stephen Fry	1957		Comedian, writer, actor, novelist
Vuk Jeremić	1975		Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Khalid Abdalla	1980		Actor
Mark Watson	1980		Comedian
Lucy Caldwell	1981		Novelist and playwright

College officials

See also Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge

List of Presidents

While the head of most colleges are called Masters, the head of Queens' College has been called the President since 1448. Below is the list of Presidents that have served the college:

Name	Start of service	End of service
Andrew Dokett	1448	1484
Thomas Wilkynson	1484	1505
St John Fisher	1505	1508
Robert Bekensaw	1508	1519
John Jenyn	1519	1525
Thomas Farman	1525	1527
William Frankleyn	1527	1529
Simon Heynes	1529	1537
William Mey	1537	1553
William Glynn	1553	1557
Thomas Pecocke	1557	1559
William Mey	1559	1560
John Stokes	1560	1568
William Chaderton	1568	1579
Humphrey Tindall	1579	1614
John Davenant	1614	1622
John Mansell	1622	1631
Edward Martin	1631	1644
Herbert Palmer	1644	1647
Thomas Horton	1647	1660
Edward Martin	1660	1662
Anthony Sparrow	1662	1667
William Wells	1667	1675
Henry James	1675	1717
John Davies	1717	1732
William Sedgwick	1732	1760
Robert Plumptre	1760	1788
Isaac Milner	1788	1820
Henry Godfrey	1820	1832
Joshua King	1832	1857
George Phillips	1857	1892
William Magan Campion	1892	1896
Herbert Edward Ryle	1896	1901
Frederic Henry Chase	1901	1906
Thomas Cecil Fitzpatrick	1906	1931
John Archibald Venn	1932	1958
Arthur Llewellyn Armitage	1958	1970
Derek William Bowett	1970	1982
Ernest Ronald Oxburgh	1982	1988
John Charlton Polkinghorne	1988	1996
John Leonard Eatwell	1997

See also

• The Queen's College, Oxford

External links

• Queens' College website
• Queens' College Student Union
• The College's larger list of eminent alumni