Day 2. Third Ascent: 10:30 A.M. 

After yesterday's aborted ascent in the Bronx, we've agreed to engage the help of an urban sherpa. Mike Greenman, a geologist with the sub-surface section of the New York City Department of Design and Construction, has arranged to reconnoiter with us in Queens at the intersection of Little Neck Parkway and the Grand Central Parkway. 

Mr. Greenman is not particularly acclimated to high elevations. In fact, he has been farther beneath the city than above it -- 800 feet below it during the construction of an underground tunnel. What makes Mr. Greenman the ultimate guide for this expedition is that during his 29 years working for the city, he's been on virtually every street in the five boroughs. 

The highest point in Queens is in Glen Oaks, a far-flung neighborhood criss-crossed by a tangle of highways. The head of the topographical bureau for the Queens Borough Engineer, Moghabhai Desai, has located the top spot for us: 258.2 feet above sea level on the south side of the Grand Central Parkway. (Incidentally, K-2, a peak in Kashmir, is 28,250 feet above sea level.) 

But how do we get there? A microscopic examination of Mr. Greenman's topographical map reveals a tiny triangle with a dot in the middle, presumably an elevation point. With his walkie-talkie in his back pocket, our guide turns his back on the borough's suburban-style homes and leads our ascent up the parkway's southern service road -- at a good clip. 

As we make the summit assault, traffic rages past on the asphalt to our left, while, to our right, white golf carts whir along the narrow paths of the Glen Oaks Golf Club. Somewhere hidden among the links, a mockingbird chirps. After 10 minutes, the hill we've been climbing begins to crest. The summit? 

We mark a spot with a stick beneath a black oak and, after returning with Mr. Greenman's surveying rod, confirm that the exact summit is only four inches away from our assessment. He pulls out a can of spray paint and marks the spot with an X in fluorescent red. 

To celebrate our successful summiting, we break out Snapples and proudly survey the view: midday traffic on the Grand Central Parkway below.
 

North Shore Towers Hill -- the summit of which is less than 100 yards inside the city limits from Nassau County -- is a landmark seen daily by hundreds of thousands of commuters entering New York City from Long Island via the Grand Central Parkway and the Long Island Expressway. 

The hill once occupied by William K. Vanderbilt has always been a landmark.  However, it achieved super landmark status 10 years ago when three 32-story apartment buildings (North Shore Towers) were built near its summit. 

William K., grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt (of Grand Central Station fame), was born near New York City's highest point on Todt Hill on Staten Island. 

The high land of Queens was not to William K's taste as he moved to more luxurious digs in Nassau County on Long Island's Gold North Coast and summered at Marble Hall in Newport, Rhode Island.  The City of New York never quite got over losing Vanderbilt's "farm."  They created the city's only working farm (the Queens County Farm) about a mile west of the Vanderbilt land. 

His property then became the Glen Oaks Country Club before being becoming North Shore Towers. 

With so much construction, the terrain around the high point has been significantly altered.  The New York Times November 1998 expedition was somewhat ambigious in where it exactly it placed the spot which is close to the Little Neck access ramp to the Grand Central Parkway. 

My own reconnisance indicates the summit is at the 17th Tee in the northwest corner of the Towers Country Club (which is the successor to the Glen Oaks Country Club). 

This may be a sensitive topic since the North Shore Towers and its associated golf course are private property behind a gated entrance although a city bus services each of the towers. 

You can get very near the spot by walking on a sidewalk along Marcus Avenue (the service road for the Parkway) 100 yards up from the turnoff to the Towers.  The golf course is separated by a chain link fence. 

I did not see any signs of the fluorescent "X" as indicated by The Times.  However, it appeared that the area had been freshly cleared creating a vista from the high point.  I am referring to this access road as Marcus Avenue based on Mapblast's naming system.  The actual street signs called the access road "Grand Central Parkway." 

I visited the summit by taking the QM1A Express Bus from 57th Street and Third Avenue to North Shore Towers which made the trip in 70 minutes.  I swear the median age on the bus was 85 and it was quite ethnic (this is a heavily Jewish neighborhood reflected by the Jewish Hospital complex also near the summit).  I am told the bus is regularly dominated on Wednesday afternoons by "matinee crowds" that visit Manhattan for Broadway shows. 

From the summit and golf grounds I could see the Rockaways and the Atlantic Ocean some 10 miles to the south as well as a seemingly endless vista across Long Island to the east.  I couldn't see Manhattan from ground level. 

Like the Bronx summit, I had to dodge Canadian Geese (stragglers no doubt from nearby Lake Success). 

Officially, this summit is not named but North Shore Towers name should is very appropriate. 

• Newsday Profile of Glen Oaks Neighborhood
• Queens Chamber of Commerce Glen Oaks Site
• Queens Library Profile of Neighborhood
• William K. Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt Motor Parkway
• New York City Highest Points