1910. Inauguration of electric train service from Penn Station through East River tunnels, along main line of the Long Island Rail Road through Queens to Mineola and Hempstead.

1911. Borough topographical engineers devised comprehensive street-naming and house-numbering plan for entire borough, using the ‘Philadelphia System’ of numbered streets. Public resistance slowed implementation. System first applied to Richmond Hill, 1915. Ninety percent borough compliance by 1932.

1911-1912. Howard Beach developed by William J. Howard on Jamaica Bay landfill. Originally called Ramblersville.
Renamed in 1916.

1912. Kew Gardens: originally Hopedale, which was begun in 1875 as a railroad stop for Maple Grove Cemetery. Railroad relocated in 1909. The neighborhood and a new station, called Kew, were then developed.

1914. First Davis Cup Tournament at Forest Hills.

1914. Construction begun of Queens Boulevard as a 200-foot wide arterial highway for Queens. This entailed the redesigning of two former country roads. Official authorization for the boulevard dated from 1911 and the necessary enabling legislation from 1912. Boulevard completed in late 1930s.
1915. “Queensboro Subway” opened with service between 3rd Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan and Long Island City at Vernon-Jackson Avenues via East River Tunnel.

1916. Queens Borough Hall moved to Queens Plaza, from prior location in an old department store building on Northern Boulevard in Long Island City.

1916. Waters of Queens County closed to bathing due to sewer pollution.

1917. The United States enters World War I. The great war ends with an armistice in 1918.

1917. Hell Gate Bridge: its completion permitted New York Connecting Railroad to cross the East River at Hell Gate, thereby linking Pennsylvania Railroad lines Southern and Midwestern states to New England via tunnels under Hudson River, Manhattan, and the East River.