Named for Flushing, a place the avenue never reaches.
Flushing Avenue ends in Maspeth and does not extend to Flushing. In colonial times marshes and creeks cut Flushing off from the west, so carts and coaches went round via Jamaica; the avenue was a toll road built as an alternative, named for where it was meant to lead. Flushing itself was founded by the Dutch in 1645 as Vlissingen, after the Dutch city.