Hell Gate Bridge

The Hell Gate Bridge, originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or The East River Arch Bridge, is a 1017ft steel through arch railroad bridge in New York City. The bridge crosses the Hell Gate, a strait of the East River, between Astoria in Queens and Randalls and Wards Islands in Manhattan.The bridge is the largest of three bridges that form the Hell Gate complex. An inverted bowstring truss bridge with four 300ft spans crosses the Little Hell Gate (now filled in); and a 350ft fixed truss bridge crosses the Bronx Kill (now narrowed by fill). Together with approaches, the bridges are more than 17000ft long.The Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, England, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia derived their own designs from the Hell Gate Bridge. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, however, is about 60% larger than the Hell Gate Bridge.HistoryThe bridge was conceived in the early 1900s to link New York and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) with New England and the New Haven Railroad (NH).