#hell's gate bridge

Today's Urban Exploration post focuses on The Hell's Gate Bridge (originally named the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or the East River Arch Bridge,) which is an icon of the Astoria landscape.

Connecting Astoria Queens and Randall's and Wards Islands, the bridge crosses over the Hell Gate waterway which is a small but very treacherous stretch of water. Named by the Dutch as Hellegat (hell channel), many a ship throughout the centuries has met their demise there. Rumor has it that Hell Gate is the home to sunken treasure that came from the 1780 shipwreck of the British ship H.M.S. Hussar.

The bridge was designed by famed civil engineer Gustav Lindenthal and built by the American Bridge company for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Construction started in 1912, Hell's Gate Bridge was completed in 1916. It would be dedicated and opened on March 9, 1917.

The main arch is 305 feet above the river’s average high-level water mark. The bridge deck is 135 feet above the average high-level water mark, and the deck is 93 feet wide. Measuring at 1,017 feet in length, the Hell's Gate Bridge was the longest steel arch bridge in the world. It held that title until 1933 with the completion of the Bayonne Bridge that connects Bayonne, New Jersey and Staten Island, New York. One cool feature of the bridge's arches is that you can walk under them while walking the footpath on Randall's and Wards Islands.

In total three bridges make up the Hell Gate Bridge. The other two span over Randall's and Wards Island and the Bronx Kill (Dutch for Little Stream.) The bridge connects New York and New England rail traffic for Amtrak and the CSX freight line.

Hell's Gate Bridge, Oxford, Alabama

The pictures I almost didn't get to take because my mom freaked out and refused to go any further. She really doesn't like spooky things but I had figured since it was daytime, she'd be okay. Our GPS took us on this closed back road behind a Publix so we were walking. We were honestly one turn in the road up ahead and we would've made it to the bridge. Suddenly, mom starts freaking out, crying, turning around and going back up the road yelling about how something was telling her to not go any further. Now my mom is pretty superstitious (you'll never get her to admit it) hence us going during the daytime and not at night when "action" is supposed to happen. I just wanted to see it. So of course I was fucking pissed when she made us turn around. Seeing this damn bridge was half my reasoning for wanting to come to Anniston/Oxford. But seeing how affected my mom was by whatever she felt when we were walking towards the bridge on that back road, I tried to let it go. One of the websites I'd read about the bridge on said it was accessible from a nearby park. We found the park, saw where the bridge was connected to the end of one of the trails and decided to walk. So we walked about a mile of trail to get over to bridge in 90 degree heat with my ass dressed all in black. But once we got there, I was quite pleased. As you can see in the photos, it's fenced off so you can't even walk on it but I stood at that blockade with a smile on my face and recited my Hail Lilith prayer because that's what I'd been wanting to do all day. I hate that mom got affected so much by the little back road we went on but I'm happy we found another route.

#21: Hell’s Gate Bridge

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Some strange things are happening in Alabama... and Florida... and Minnesota... but it's Red Wine & Mystery Stories, so you know shit ain't getting done.

Hell's Gate Moon (by rjcaputophotography)

The bridge was conceived in the early 1900s as a way to link New York and thePennsylvania Railroad with New England and the New Haven Railroad.

Construction was overseen by Gustav Lindenthal, whose original design left a gap of 15 feet (4.6 m) between the steel arch and the masonry towers. Fearing that the public assumed that the towers were structurally integral to the bridge, Lindenthal added aesthetic girders between the upper chord of the arch and the towers to make the structure appear more robust. The original plans for the piers on the long approach ramps called for a steel lattice structure. The design was changed to smooth concrete to soothe concerns that asylum inmates on Wards and Randall's islands would climb the piers to escape.

The engineering was so precise that when the last section of the main span was lifted into place, the final adjustment needed to join everything together was 1⁄2 inches (12.7 mm). The bridge was completed on September 30, 1916.

It was the world's longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge was opened in 1931, and was surpassed again by the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932.