Parkway via a left exit. The service roads end at this point. After the interchange with Cross Island Parkway, the Van Wyck Expressway turns to the northwest as a six-lane expressway that passes through Whitestone. After exit 17, which serves 3rd Avenue, the expressway passes over Francis Lewis Park and begins its approach onto the Whitestone Bridge over the East River. The highway leaves Queens and enters the Bronx along the bridge. The bridge descends to ground level and I-678 passes through an open-road toll gantry, which is located at the former site of a tollbooth. Afterward, the expressway intersects Lafayette Avenue. North of Lafayette Avenue is the Bruckner Interchange, where I-678's designation ends and the highway continues northward as the Hutchinson River Parkway. History Whitestone Parkway In 1936, New York governor Herbert H. Lehman signed a bill that authorized the construction of the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge, which would connect Queens and the Bronx. At its north end, the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge would connect to Eastern Boulevard (later known as Bruckner Boulevard) via the Hutchinson River Parkway. The bridge's south end would connect to a new Whitestone Parkway, which led southwest off the bridge to Northern Boulevard. Just south of the bridge, there was to be a three-level interchange between the Whitestone Parkway and the Cross Island Parkway. Plans for the bridge were completed by February 1937, at which time the state started issuing bonds to fund bridge construction. The right-of-way for the Whitestone Bridge and Parkway was legally designated in July 1937. The Whitestone Bridge and Parkway both opened on April 29, 1939. Construction on the bridge and parkway had been accelerated in preparation for the 1939 New York World's Fair, which opened one day after the Whitestone Bridge and Parkway. The new highway was intended as a major thoroughfare to the World's Fair, which was hosted in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, near the Whitestone Parkway's southern end. In 1953, work began on an interchange between Willets Point Boulevard, Northern Boulevard, and Whitestone Parkway, at the parkway's southern end. Van Wyck Expressway In the 1940s, Moses proposed the construction of a system of highways that would traverse the New York City area. The plan was to cost $800 million (equivalent to $ in ), and, in 1945, the city agreed to pay $60 million (equivalent to $ in ) of that cost. Among them was the Van Wyck Expressway, which would stretch