And like the bridge in Newcastle, England (see earlier post), it precedes the Sydney bridge by a number of years, in fact it is the earliest of the three, opened in 1916. This one was solely built for and is solely used today by railway traffic.
The Hell Gate Bridge (originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or The East River Arch Bridge) is a 1,017-foot (310 metre) steel through arch bridge between Astoria in the borough of Queens, Randall's/Wards Island (which are now joined into one island and 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 east of the roadway.
The great arch bridge is the largest of three bridges that (along with more than 17,000 feet [3.2 miles or 5.2 km] long of approach spans and viaducts) form the Hell Gate complex. An inverted bowstring truss bridge with four 300-foot (91.4 metre) spans crossed the Little Hell Gate (now filled in); and a 350-foot (106.7 metre) fixed truss bridge crossed the Bronx Kill (now narrowed by fill).
The biggest bridge of the three - this, the Newcastle and the Sydney bridges - however, is the Sydney one, about 60% bigger than the Hell Gate bridge. Apart from appearance, it has a commonality with the Sydney bridge in that the masonry towers are just for show. The 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, designer Gustav Lindenthal added aesthetic girders between the upper chord of the arch and the towers to make the structure appear more robust.
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