Wednesday, May 6, 2020 – Blowing up the rocks of Hell Gate
WEDNESDAY
MAY 6, 2020
RIHS’s 44th Issue of
BLOWING UP THE ROCKS AT
HELLGATE
SPECIAL REPORT FROM
MOMO, THE HEALING HOUND
AT COLER
East View of Hell Gate in the Province of New York NYPL (c)
In 1851, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers led by General John Newton began to clear obstacles from Hell Gate, a strait in New York City’s East River, with explosives.
The operation would last 70 years. On September 24, 1876, the Corps used 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg) of explosives to blast the rocks, which was followed by further blasting.
The process was started by excavating under Hallets reef from Astoria. Cornish miners assisted by steam drills dug galleries under the reef, which were then interconnected. They later drilled holes for explosives. A patent was issued for the detonating device. After the explosion the rock debris was dredged and dropped in a deep part of the river, this was not repeated at the later Flood rock explosion.
Hell Gate Explosion On October 10, 1885
A major impediment to navigation on the East River, a huge rock island called Flood Rock, was blown up. This rock island was located between Astoria (Queens) and Wards Island (Manhattan) in a dangerous narrow section of the East River called Hell Gate.
The explosion was watched by thousands of spectators and felt throughout the city. Hell Gate is a narrow tidal strait in the East River which connects the Upper Bay of New York Harbor and Long Island Sound, a place of rocks and dangerously converging tide-driven currents. It is located between Wards Island (part of Manhattan) and Astoria (Queens).
This choke point on the East River was, and still is, a challenge to navigation.During the 19th century, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers undertook a decades-long project to clear major obstacles from Hell Gate. In the 1880s the massive (9 acre) stone island called Flood Rock was its target.
Tides hitting the rock created turbulent currents and whirlpools in the busy narrow channel, impeding navigation. The Corp’s plan was to employ explosives, a huge amount of explosives, to widen and deepen the Hell Gate channel and to lessen the swirls and eddies. During the nine years leading up to 1885, a mine shaft was dug deep into Flood Rock with tunnels branched out at various levels. Holes drilled into the ceilings were filled with 283,000 pounds of explosives.
When the day came to set off the explosion, the mine shaft was flooded with water to help deaden the sound and mitigate the shock in surrounding areas, and on October 10, 1885 the largest single explosion recorded to date broke up the base of the rock.
Flood Rock, now full of cracks, settled lower in the water. Surface blasting addressed some remaining above-surface areas. General Newton, in charge of the project, declared the result a complete success. Removal of the broken rock would take place over time and be done by dredges. The shock of the deep explosion was felt all over the city.
An estimated 200,000 spectators lined the Astoria Long Island shore, the river front of Manhattan, Wards and other islands in the East River, and crowded on many commercial and private vessels.
Note: Wards Island (south) is now conjoined with Randalls Island (north). Before being filled in, the passage between them was called “Little Hell Gate”. They are part of the borough of Manhattan.
THE HELL GATE
BRIDGE
The Hell Gate Bridge, originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or the East River Arch Bridge, is a 1,017-foot (310 m)[a] steel through arch railroad bridge in New York City.
The bridge carries two tracks of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and one freight track across the Hell Gate, a strait of the East River, between Astoria in Queens, and Randalls and Wards Islands in Manhattan. The arch across the Hell Gate is the largest of three bridges that form the Hell Gate railroad viaduct.
An inverted bowstring truss bridge with four 300-foot (91.4 m) spans crosses the Little Hell Gate, a former strait that is now filled in, and a 350-foot (106.7 m) fixed truss bridge crosses the Bronx Kill, a strait now narrowed by fill. Together with approaches, the bridges are more than 17,000 feet (3.2 mi; 5.2 km) long.
The designs of the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, England and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in New South Wales, Australia were derived from the Hell Gate Bridge.
Pool was built for Olympic Trials for Berlin Olympics 1936
Astoria Park Pool 1937 MCNY Wurts Bros.(c)
The bridge was conceived in the early 1900s to link New York and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) with New England and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad (NH) In June 1906, the NH applied for and received a franchise to operate trains from the northeastern suburbs of New York City to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan, built by the PRR. The New Haven would be able to accomplish this by constructing a spur from the four-track New Haven Railroad and New York Central Railroad main line in the Bronx (these railroads are now respectively the modern-day New Haven Line and Harlem Line of the Metro-North Railroad).
The spur, now the Port Morris Branch, would split north of Melrose station in the South Bronx, then merge with the Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad (HR&PC; now part of the Northeast Corridor) just north of the Harlem River. The HR&PC would pass from the Bronx to Queens via the Hell Gate Bridge, then continue south through Queens, eventually connecting to the East River Tunnels and Penn Station
As part of the plan, the Hell Gate Bridge would carry four tracks, which would connect to the NH’s four-track lines on either side of the Hell Gate.[8] 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 just 5⁄16 inch (7.9 mm). Construction of the Hell Gate Bridge began on March 1, 1912 and ended on September 30, 1916.
The bridge was dedicated and opened to rail traffic on March 9, 1917,
with Washington–Boston through trains first running on April 1.] It was the world’s longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge opened in 1931.
During World War II, its economic value made it a target of the Nazi sabotage plan known as Operation Pastorius. In the 1990s, the bridge was repainted for the first time since it opened. It was painted a deep red called “Hell Gate Red”. Due to a flaw in the paint, the red color began to fade before the work was completed, leading to the bridge’s currently faded, splotchy appearance.
EDITORIAL
A few years ago a friend and I took Amtrak from Penn Station to Vermont. We took the train from Manhattan thru the Sunnyside Yards on the tracks parallel to Northern Blvd and thru Astoria and going over the Hell Gate Bridge to the wonderlands of the Bronx. The rest of the 13 hour experience, I will save for a day with a large Margarita in my hand.
Looking out of rail cars, elevated subway cars, tram cabins, airplane windows are my favorite pass times. I am the one who raises the window shade to look down on America.
Since we are so limited now, I can suggest the F train over the bridges and to Smith and 9th streets in Brooklyn for the view. It is the highest station in the MTA system.
At some point if you crave aerial adventures, take some of the Transit Museum vintage train tours. One to take in the summer is going from downtown Brooklyn to Coney Island on an old 1950’s car. Get off at Stillwell Avenue and take the nice new cool F train home.
Judith Berdy
212 688 4836
REPORT FROM MOMO,
THE COLER HEALING HOUND
Our Healing Hound MOMO, who lives and works at Coler was on hand Monday to receive a supply of Keurig Coffee makers for the nursing home units. in order to make life better, having a coffee maker on the unit will raise spirits and give the residents the opportunity for an easy beverage at any time.
The coffee makers were donated the the Coler Auxiliary.
In order to support the Auxiliary, please see our letter below.
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c)
PHOTOS MCNY (C)
Text Wikipedia (c)
Images Scientific American (c)
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