Queensbridge is the largest public housing development in North America, a Depression-era complex of 96 Y-shaped red-brick buildings opened in 1939 along the Long Island City waterfront south of the Queensboro Bridge, housing approximately 7,000 residents in 3,142 units. It became a crucible of hip-hop culture in the 1980s and 1990s — producing Nas, Mobb Deep, and MC Shan among others — and Nas's debut album *Illmatic*, largely set in Queensbridge, is widely considered one of the greatest rap records ever made.