NEW YORK CITY - Triborough & Hell Gate Bridges for Sale

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NEW YORK CITY - Triborough & Hell Gate Bridges For Sale

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NEW YORK CITY - Triborough & Hell Gate Bridges:
$9.00

NEW YORK CITY - Triborough & Hell Gate Bridges: The Triborough Bridge (sometimes spelled Triboro Bridge, officially Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Bridge), is a complex of three separate bridges in New York City, United States. Spanning the Harlem River, the Bronx Kill, and the Hell Gate (part of the East River), the bridges connect the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and The Bronx via Randall\'s Island and Wards Island, which are joined by landfill. The bridge is owned by the City of New York and operated by the MTA Bridges and Tunnels, an affiliate agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Often still referred to as simply the \"Triboro\" the spans were officially named after Robert F. Kennedy in 2008. Plans for connecting Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx were first announced by Edward A. Byrne, chief engineer of the New York City Department of Plant and Structures, in 1916. While its construction had long been recommended by local officials, the Triborough Bridge did not receive any funding until 1925, when the city appropriated funds for surveys, test borings and structural plans. Construction had begun on Black Friday in 1929, and the Triborough project\'s outlook began to look bleak. Othmar Ammann\'s assistance was enlisted to help simplify the structure. Ammann had collapsed the original two-deck roadway into one, requiring lighter towers, and thus, lighter piers. These cost-saving revisions saved $10 million on the towers alone. Using New Deal money, the project was resurrected in the early 1930s by Robert Moses and the bridge was opened to traffic on July 11, 1936. The Hell Gate Bridge (originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or The East River Arch Bridge) is a 1,017-foot (310 m) steel through arch railroad bridge between Astoria in the borough of Queens, Randall\'s/Wards Island (which are now joined into one island and are 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 mi; 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 m) spans crosses the Little Hell Gate (now filled in); and a 350-foot (106.7 m) fixed truss bridge crosses the Bronx Kill (now narrowed by fill). This bridge was the inspiration for the design of Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, which is about 60 percent bigger. The 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). 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 1/2 inch (12.7 mm). Construction of the Hell Gate Bridge began on March 1, 1912 and ended on September 30, 1916. It was the world\'s longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge was opened in 1931, and was surpassed again by the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932. The Linen Era (1930-45) postcard is in good condition. Manhattan Post Card Publishing Co., Inc. No. 10154. No. 182.