Hell Gate Bridge

The Hell Gate Bridge (originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge) is a railroad bridge in New York City. The bridge carries two tracks of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and one freight track between Astoria, Queens, and Port Morris, Bronx, via Randalls and Wards Islands. Its main span is a steel through arch across Hell Gate, a strait of the East River that separates Wards Island from Queens. The bridge also includes several approach viaducts and two spans across smaller waterways; including these spans, the bridge is long. It is one of the few rail connections from Long Island, of which Queens is part, to the continental United States. The New York Connecting Railroad (NYCR) was formed in 1892¹ to build the bridge, linking New Jersey and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) with New England and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad (NH). A cantilever bridge across Hell Gate was proposed in 1900, but the plan was changed to a through-arch bridge after repeated delays. Construction was overseen by the engineers Gustav Lindenthal, Othmar Ammann, and David B. Steinman and architect Henry Hornbostel. The bridge was dedicated on March 9, 1917, and was the world's longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge opened in 1931. Various proposals to modify the bridge in the 1920s were unsuccessful.…

The Hell Gate Bridge (originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge) is a railroad bridge in New York City. The bridge carries two tracks of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and one freight track between Astoria, Queens, and Port Morris, Bronx, via Randalls and Wards Islands. Its main span is a steel through arch across Hell Gate, a strait of the East River that separates Wards Island from Queens. The bridge also includes several approach viaducts and two spans across smaller waterways; including these spans, the bridge is long. It is one of the few rail connections from Long Island, of which Queens is part, to the continental United States. The New York Connecting Railroad (NYCR) was formed in 1892 to build the bridge, linking New Jersey and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) with New England and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad (NH). A cantilever bridge across Hell Gate was proposed in 1900, but the plan was changed to a through-arch bridge after repeated delays. Construction was overseen by the engineers Gustav Lindenthal, Othmar Ammann, and David B. Steinman and architect Henry Hornbostel. The bridge was dedicated on March 9, 1917, and was the world's longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge opened in 1931. Various proposals to modify the bridge in the 1920s were unsuccessful. The bridge was renovated in the 1990s following three decades of deterioration. The main span is a two-hinged arch flanked by stone towers on either bank of Hell Gate. Northwest of the Hell Gate span, the viaduct is carried on plate-girder spans along the east side of Wards and Randalls Islands. A four-span inverted bowstring truss bridge, measuring , carries the railroad tracks across Little Hell Gate, a former stream between Randalls and Wards Islands. Further north is a , two-span truss bridge across Bronx Kill, a small strait separating Randalls Island from the Bronx. There are also steel-and-concrete approach viaducts in the Bronx and Queens. In addition to the three existing tracks on the bridge, there was a fourth track used by freight trains until the 1970s. The passenger tracks have been electrified since 1918, and the freight tracks also had electrification from 1927 to 1969. The Hell Gate Bridge has received commentary both for its design and its impact on Long Island's commerce, and its design inspired that of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. ==Development == == Operational history == ==Description == The Hell Gate Bridge was originally known as the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or as the East River Bridge Division. It consists of five spans, which connect the New York City boroughs of the Bronx to the north with Queens to the south. Three of the spans cross the Hell Gate, Little Hell Gate, and the Bronx Kill waterways, while the other two spans run above Randalls and Wards Islands. Including approach viaducts in the Bronx and Queens, the Hell Gate Bridge is composed of seven sections. Together with approaches, the bridge has been cited as being , more than , or long. Gustav Lindenthal was the chief engineer for the bridge; he was assisted by the engineers Othmar Ammann and David B. Steinman. In addition, Henry Hornbostel was the bridge's architect. The Hell Gate Bridge is used exclusively as a railroad bridge, carrying passenger trains traveling between New York Penn Station and the Bronx, as well as freight trains heading between Queens and the Bronx. The Hell Gate Bridge parallels the Hell Gate and Bronx Kill legs of the Robert F. Kennedy (formerly Triborough) Bridge to the west. The span across Hell Gate is oriented roughly from northwest to southeast, while the other two spans are oriented from northeast to southwest. The bridge was built with provisions for an upper level if the need arose. The entire bridge required of steel and of concrete. The decks of each span are all made of concrete panels, which carry track beds with ballast; this was intended to reduce noise pollution and is unusual for a railroad bridge. The February 2005 issue of Discover magazine estimated that, if humans were to disappear, the bridge could last for at least a millennium; most other bridges would fall in about 300 years. ==Usage== The bridge carries two passenger rail tracks, which are part of Amtrak's electrified Northeast Corridor line, and one freight rail track, which is part of the New York Connecting Railroad's Fremont Secondary line. The Northeast Corridor tracks comprise one of Long Island's few railroad connections to the continental U.S. The bridge uses a track gauge of , the U.S. standard gauge. The passenger tracks are electrified by overhead wire, and the freight tracks were electrified until 1969. Amtrak owns the bridge. ===Services=== ===Fees and surcharges=== Fees were originally charged on freight trains that used the Hell Gate Bridge. For instance, in the 1910s, the New Haven Railroad charged a fee of three cents for every of cargo that was transported via the bridge, a fee that was raised to five cents after World War I. During World War I, passengers began paying a fee on trips that used the bridge. The surcharge, imposed on all passengers who were not departing or arriving at New York Penn Station, was originally 75 cents but was raised to 90 cents in 1920. To avoid the surcharge, passengers transiting through New York City frequently chose to buy a ticket from their original departure point to Penn Station, then another from Penn Station to their destination. This prompted a complaint in 1945, in which a traveler claimed that the fee was discriminatory; an ICC examiner recommended that the PRR and NH stop charging the fee, but the ICC rejected the recommendation. The ICC launched another inquiry into the surcharge in 1951. ICC commissioner J. Monroe Johnson recommended in 1954 that the surcharge either be applied to all rail trips or be abolished entirely, but the ICC also rejected the proposal. ==See also== List of bridges and tunnels in New York City List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in New York Rail freight transportation in New York City and Long Island ==References== ==External links==

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1376335326 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.