For a number of years during the early 1900's, an effort was made to have New York State construct a canal connecting Flushing Bay on the north shore with Jamaica Bay on the south. The canal would have crossed the summit of the main ridge at Maple Grove Cemetery between Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike at one end, and 136th Street south of the Cemetery at the other.

That did not mean that the area would have suffered an open cut like the one later inflicted by the Interboro Parkway. Instead, the portion of the canal running from Union Turnpike and Queens Boulevard to Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill was to be underground in double reinforced concrete tunnels each having channels 50 feet across with columns between them. The top of each tunnel would have been 30 feet above water level.

State engineers did surveys for the proposed canal in 1913, and a report was made to the Legislature in March of 1914. However, the State never appropriated any money for the project and the idea went nowhere.