Lesson plan

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 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.…

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Article summary

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.…

Key claims

  1. date of formation: 1892 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the date of formation is "1892". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1376335326

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.