Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-12-16
BIG BRIDGE OVER HELL GATE

Two years from next spring the East
river will be spanned by another bridge.
II will be across Hell Gate, from Long
Island to The Bronx, and will serve to
connect the New Haven & Hartford and
the Pennsylvania systems.
The New York connecting railroad
bridge, as It is called, will he ready iB the
spring OF 1914, according to former Bridge
Commissioner Gustav Lindenthal, who
designed the structure with Palmer &
Hornbostel. In 1t New York VIII see one
OF the most massive bridges in the world.
With vladucts II will be three miles long
and nearly 10000 tons Of structural steel
will be required to build It, There are
taller bridges, but heavier span there is
none. 1t will be used exclusively by the
builders. the Pennsylvania and the New
Haven & Hartford.
There Will be three great spans The
first will connect Long Island City and
Wards Island, the second Wards Island
and Randalrs Island, and the third Ran
dalFs Island and The Bronx.
The span crossing from Long Island to
Wards Island will be the largest. This
will be known as the Hell Gate bridge.
1t will be Of the braced steel arch type
and will resemble a gigantic river gate.
1t will also mark the entrance to the East
| river from the north.
! TWO big steel arches 5000 feet in length
will support the deck. These will rise
/ to a height of 300 feet above the water.
/ The deck will be 40 feet over the river,
which is the distance that separates the
old Brooklyn bridge from the water. The
bridge will look like the old Brooklyn
bridge turned upside down.
| The distance between the towers wild
| be 1.1O7 feet, or about one-fifth of mile.
| About 100000 tons of steel will be required
| for the span. Some of the members alone
will weigh 1856 tons. In this respect the
span is superior to every other in the
world.
The bridge crossing the Firth of Forth
in Scotland comes next This bridge has
two spans of LOO feet each and carries
two railroad tracks.
The Hell Gate span viii carry four
tracks embedded in stone ballast, so there
will be no rumbling noise to disturb SEN
sitive nerves.
The towers will be 200 feet high There
win be four Of them, two on each side
They will be of moulded concrete ma
sorry surmounting abutments of cyclic
pean gray granite. Parts Of the masonry
work nave been completed, while other
parts are still under construction.
Excavations for the abutments were
started some time ago, but It will be
months before they will appear above
the surface They extend down to bed
rock, which In parts is $50 feet down In
the bowels of the earth
On the Astoria side the piers run down
from 105 to $50 feet. On Wards Island
rock was found much nearer. The Astoria
pliers are on the old Barclay homestead
and not far from scaly rock.
In the upper parts of the tower viii
be rooms for switches and other railroad
necessities. About 100000 cubic yards o.
masonry will be used.
The viaduct viii be of solid steel. II
Long Island II viii follow a line 40 fee
north of Barclay street southwestwarC
to the Pennsylvania yards at Sunnyside
1t will pass over Long Island City at
an average height Of sixty feet and will
rest on a series Of concrete arches sup
porting steel Orders. Mr.. LindenthaIl
, original plan called for an all steel via
! duct but this did not come up to tn,
aesthetic standard set by the Municipa
Art commission. and the plans were re
jected.
, Since then the plans have been changed
to call for concrete land supports. an,
other decorative changes suggested by tn
commission for the span have been made
From an engineering point of view tn