The Hell Gate Bridge (originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or The East River Arch Bridge) is a 1,017-foot (310 m) steel through arch railroad bridge between Astoria in the borough of Queens, Randall's/Wards Island (which are now joined into one island and are politically part of Manhattan), and The Bronx in New York City, over a portion of the East River known as Hell Gate.
The Hell Gate Bridge runs parallel to the Queens span of the RFK-Triborough Bridge, which connects Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan, and drivers can see the length of the bridge just east of the roadway.
The great arch bridge is the largest of three bridges, along with more than 17,000 feet (3.2 mi; 5.2 km) long of approach spans and viaducts, that form the Hell Gate complex. An inverted bowstring truss bridge with four 300-foot (91.4 m) spans crosses the Little Hell Gate (now filled in); and a 350-foot (106.7 m) fixed truss bridge crosses the Bronx Kill (now narrowed by fill).
This bridge was the inspiration for the design of Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia which is about 60% bigger.
Read more about Hell Gate Bridge: History
Famous quotes containing the words hell, gate and/or bridge:
“Hermann and Humbert are alike only in the sense that two dragons painted by the same artist at different periods of his life resemble each other. Both are neurotic scoundrels, yet there is a green lane in Paradise where Humbert is permitted to wander at dusk once a year; but Hell shall never parole Hermann.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“And we, barely recalled from sleep there, sense
Arrivals lowing in a doleful distance
Horny dilemmas at the gate once more.
Come and choose wrong, they cry, come and choose wrong....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Crime seems to change character when it crosses a bridge or a tunnel. In the city, crime is taken as emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs, though, it’s intimate and psychological—resistant to generalization, a mystery of the individual soul.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)