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.
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