Hell Gate Bridge was the main element in a project that linked the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, allowing a direct route to New England. The bridge was constructed over Hell Gate, a narrow channel so named because of its turbulence. The waterway is 100 ft deep at midstream, with a tidal rise and fall of 6 ft and a high tidal velocity.

The 1,017-ft bridge is a two-hinged steel arch with a clear span from center to center of skewback hinges of 977.6 ft. Built to accommodate four railroad tracks, it was designed for a total live and dead load of 76,000 lb per lineal foot.

The arch's lower chord takes all of the compressive stress and the upper chord acts as the top chord of a stiffening truss. The bottom has a closed double-rectangular cross section with a uniform width of 6.5 ft and a depth varying from 7.5 ft at the crown to 11.5 ft at the skewbacks. The largest bottom chord piece has a cross sectional area of 1,385 sq in. (Engineering Record 6/27/14 p. 734).

Hell Gate's turbulence--and the need to maintain marine traffic--made falsework out of the question. The bridge was erected by cantilevering from each pier the arms held in place by tiebacks. Late in 1915, hydraulic jacks lowered the two halves 22 in. to meet. They were only 5Ž16-in. apart, an easy matter to deal with.

Lindenthal's engineering achievement on Hell Gate was the latest in a string of noteworthy bridge designs. Among his other famous spans were the the 1,550-ft-long Sciotoville Bridge over the Ohio River, which was for 18 years the world's longest continuous truss; and Hell Gate's neighbor over the East River, the Queensboro Bridge. It is a five-span cantilever with a longest span of 1,182 ft.

Lindenthal's two assistant chief engineers on Hell Gate would themselves go on to fame in the bridge design arena--Othmar H. Ammann and David B. Steinman.

Catskill Records
A record-breaking volume of masonry was placed in a dam during a month. A total of 53,240 cu yd of cyclopean masonry and concrete blocks was placed in 25 eight-hour days at Kensico Dam in New York City's Catskill Aqueduct System. (Engineering Record 1/10/14 p. 32.) The breakthrough of the last pair of headings in the 18-mile Catskill Aqueduct tunnel made it by 6 miles the world's longest tunnel. (Engineering Record 1/17/14 p. 59.)

Dangerous Rodents
Gophers were thought to be the primary cause of destruction of Hebron Dam in Maxwell, N. M. Water flowing through small burrowings scoured out a large cavity and eventually washed away a 200-ft length of the 56-ft-high earthen dam. (Engineering Record 5/30/14 p. 629.)

Detroit Ceiling
An ordinance proposed in Detroit would limit the height of buildings to 10 stories. City officials said that taller buildings cannot be adequately protected against fire, do not add to the city's architectural beauty and would disgorge thousands of office workers at the same time--creating major congestion. (Engineering Record 1/31/14 p. 62.)

Highest Reinforced Concrete
The new Traymore Hotel in Atlantic City, N. J., was one of the largest reinforced concrete structures in existence In addition, at 17 stories, it would be the highest such constructed building that was ever attempted. (Engineering News 3/18/15 p. 556.)

Tunneling Achievement
A new American hard rock tunneling record of 817 ft through quartzite in one month was made in the Rogers Pass tunnel of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Glacier, B.C. (Engineering Record 12/19/14
p. 659.)

Two Canals Completed
After 10 years work, the excavation of 260 million cu yd of earth and rock and a cost of $302 million, the Panama Canal opened for commercial traffic. (Engineering Record 5/23/14 p. 319.) The Cape Cod Canal, a project first conceived by the Pilgrims, was completed after four years of work. The 17.4-mile passage linking Cape Cod Bay and Buzzards Bay reduced the sea route between New York and Boston from 402 miles to 260 miles. (Engineering Record 6/16/14 p. 656.)