Queensbridge is named after the Queensboro Bridge, just to the south.
The Queensbridge Houses, a public housing development opened in 1939, stand just north of the Queensboro Bridge, for which the complex is named; the station on 21st Street serves it. Before Queens streets were numbered, this stretch of 21st Street was Van Alst Avenue, a name still kept by the 21st Street–Van Alst subway station.