Editing Hell Gate

{{Short description|Tidal strait in New York City}}
{{about|the New York City strait}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2015}}
[[File:Hell Gate Bridge (84467)p.jpg|thumb|Hell Gate and the [[Hell Gate Bridge]], looking north]]
[[File:Wpdms terra hell gate.jpg|thumb|Hell Gate, shown in red, in a satellite photo of [[New York Harbor]], separating [[Wards Island]] to the west and [[Astoria, Queens]] to the east]]
'''Hell Gate''' is a narrow [[tidal strait]] in the [[East River]] in [[New York City]]. It separates [[Astoria, Queens|Astoria]], [[Queens]], from [[Randall's and Wards Islands]] in [[Manhattan]].<ref name="Citycyclopedia">{{cite book |editor-first=Kenneth T. |editor-last=Jackson |title=The Encyclopedia of New York City |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, Conn. |year=1995 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300055368/page/538 538] |isbn=0-300-05536-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300055368/page/538 }}</ref>

== Etymology ==
The name "Hell Gate" is a corruption of the Low German or [[Dutch language|Dutch phrase]] ''[[Gat (landform)#Etymology|Hellegat]]'', which means "bright gate". It first appeared on a Dutch map as {{lang|nl|Helle Gadt}}.<ref name=gannett>{{Cite web|url=https://memory.loc.gov/intldl/awkbhtml/kb-1/kb-1-2-5.html|title = The Atlantic World: Dutch Place Names / De Atlantische Wereld: Plaatsnamen}}</ref> The name was originally applied to the entirety of the East River, by [[Netherlands|Dutch]] explorer [[Adriaen Block]], the first European known to have navigated the strait, who bestowed the name sometime during his 1614–1616 voyage aboard the ''Onrust'' circumnavigating [[Long Island]], from its namesake Hellegat on (the mouth of) the [[Scheldt]], in [[Zeeland]] back in the Netherlands.{{sfnp|Nichols|2018|pp=10–12}}<ref name=ruttenber/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Hellegat is a fairly common name for waterways in the [[Low Countries]], with at least 20 examples.<ref name=vandyck-web/>}}

This name Hellegat was taken from the Greek Hellespont ([[Dardanelles]]) which also has a dangerous reputation, in the opinion of historian [[Edward Manning Ruttenber]].<ref name=ruttenber/> Alternatively, the name could be construed to mean "bright strait" or "clear opening", according to geographer [[Henry Gannett]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9V1IAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA154 | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. |last=Gannett |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Gannett | year=1905 | page=154 [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n153 154] }} [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ Alt URL]</ref>

Because explorers found navigation hazardous in this New World place of rocks and converging tide-driven currents (from the [[Long Island Sound]], [[Harlem River]] strait, [[Upper New York Bay|Upper Bay]] of [[New York Harbor]], and lesser channels, some of which have been filled), the Anglicization stuck.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.newyorkhistory.info/Hell-Gate/|title=Hell Gate|work=New York History|access-date=April 15, 2012|archive-date=January 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120102020331/http://www.newyorkhistory.info/Hell-Gate/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The strait was also known as '''Hurl Gate''' (or '''Hurlgate'''), and so labeled on 18th and 19th century maps and annals,{{sfnp|Nichols|2018|pp=19–20}}<ref name=ruttenber/> this name probably consisting of Dutch ''{{lang|nl|warrel}}'' "whirl" and ''{{lang|nl|gat}}'' "hole, gap, mouth", in effect denoting "whirlpool".<ref name=ruttenber/>

For the [[whirlpool]] that develops in Hell Gate, the name Monatun was applied by Dr. [[Henry Rowe Schoolcraft]]; the name is said to mean "violent, forcible, dangerous".<ref name=ruttenber/>

==History==
In October 1776, [[Admiral Howe]] sailed some of the British fleet through the strait, an action which was considered reckless at the time.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://nymag.com/arts/books/features/robert-sullivan-my-american-revolution-2012-9/|title=Permanent Revolution|magazine=New York magazine|date=September 10, 2012}}</ref>

Hell Gate was spanned in 1917 by the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge, now called the [[Hell Gate Bridge]], which connects Wards Island and [[Queens]]. The bridge provides a direct rail link between [[New England]] and New York City.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/hell-gate/ |title=Hell Gate Bridge |last=Anderson |first=Steve |work=NYCRoads |access-date=April 13, 2010}}</ref> In 1936, it was spanned by the Triborough Bridge (now the [[Robert F. Kennedy Bridge]]), allowing vehicular traffic to pass among [[Manhattan]], the Bronx, and Queens.<ref>{{cite Power Broker|page=386}}</ref>

===Clearing rocks===
{{main|Removal of Hell Gate rocks}}
[[File:PSM V28 D454 Hallet point excavations and tunnel 7.jpg|thumb|300px|The excavations and tunnels used to undermine Hallert's Point near the former site of [[Fort Stevens (New York)|Fort Stevens]]]]

Periodically, merchants and other interested parties would try to get something done about the difficulty of navigating through Hell Gate. In 1832, the New York State legislature was presented with a petition for a canal to be built through nearby Hallet's Point, thus avoiding Hell Gate altogether.  Instead, the legislature responded by providing ships with pilots trained to navigate the shoals for the next 15 years.<ref name=concrete93>Eldredge & Horenstein (2014), p.93</ref>

In 1849, a French engineer whose specialty was underwater blasting, [[Benjamin Maillefert]], had cleared some of the rocks which, along with the mix of tides, made the Hell Gate stretch of the river so dangerous to navigate.  Ebenezer Meriam had organized a subscription to pay Maillefert $6,000 to, for instance, reduce "Pot Rock" to provide {{convert|24|ft}} of depth at low-mean water.  While ships continued to run aground (in the 1850s about 2% of ships did so) and petitions continued to call for action, the federal government undertook surveys of the area which ended in 1851 with a detailed and accurate map.<ref name=concrete93 />

By then Maillefert had cleared the rock "Baldheaded Billy", and it was reported that Pot Rock had been reduced to {{convert|20.5|ft}}, which encouraged the [[United States Congress]] to appropriate $20,000 for further clearing of the strait.  However, a more accurate survey showed that the depth of Pot Rock was actually a little more than {{convert|18|ft}}, and eventually Congress withdrew its funding.<ref>Steinberg, pp.99–100</ref>

With the main shipping channels through The Narrows into the harbor silting up with sand due to [[Longshore drift|littoral drift]], thus providing ships with less depth, and a new generation of larger ships coming online – epitomized by [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]]'s [[SS Great Eastern|SS ''Great Eastern'']], popularly known as "Leviathan" – New York began to be concerned that it would start to lose its status as a great port if a "back door" entrance into the harbor was not created.<ref>Steinberg, pp.105–106</ref>  In the 1850s the depth continued to lessen – the harbor commission said in 1850 that the mean water low was {{convert|24|ft}} and the extreme water low was {{convert|23|ft}} – while the draft required by the new ships continued to increase, meaning it was only safe for them to enter the harbor at high tide.<ref>Eldredge & Horenstein (2014), pp.94–95</ref>

The U.S. Congress, realizing that the problem needed to be addressed, appropriated $20,000 for the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]] to continue Maillefert's work, but the money was soon spent without appreciable change in the hazards of navigating the strait.  An advisory council recommended in 1856 that the strait be cleared of all obstacles, but nothing was done, and the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] soon broke out.<ref name=concrete95>Eldredge & Horenstein (2014), p.95</ref>

[[File:(King1893NYC) pg944 FLOOD ROCK EXPLOSION AT HELL GATE IN OCTOBER, 1885. RAND DRILL COMPANY'S DRILLS AND EXPLOSIVES.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The 1885 explosion]]

In the late 1860s, after the Civil War, Congress realized the military importance of having easily navigable waterways, and charged the Army Corps of Engineers with clearing Hell Gate of the rocks there that caused a danger to navigation. The Corps' Colonel James Newton estimated that the project would cost $1 million, as compared to the approximate annual loss in shipping of $2 million.  Initial forays floundered, and Newton, by that time a general, took over direct control of the project.<ref name=concrete95 />  In 1868 Newton decided, with the support of both New York's mercantile class and local real estate interests, to focus on the {{convert|3|acre|ha|adj=on}} Hallert's Point Reef off of Queens.  The project would involve {{convert| 7,000|ft}} of tunnels equipped with trains to haul debris out as the reef was eviscerated, creating a reef structured like [[Swiss cheese (North America)|Swiss cheese]], which Newton would then blow up.

After seven years of digging seven thousand holes, and filling four thousand of them with {{convert|30000|lb}} of dynamite, on September 24, 1876, in front of an audience of people including the inhabitants of the insane asylum on Wards Island, but not the prisoners of Blackwell's Island (now known as Roosevelt Island) who remained in their cells, Newton's daughter set off the explosion. The effect was immediate in decreased turbulence through the strait, and fewer accidents and shipwrecks.  The city's [[Chamber of commerce|Chamber of Commerce]] commented that "The Centennial year will be for ever known in the annals of commerce for this destruction of one of the terrors of navigation."  Clearing out the debris from the explosion took until 1891.<ref name="fed420">{{cite fednyc|pages=419–20}}</ref><ref name=wolfe>Wolfe, Gerard R. "Hell Gate and Hell Gate Bridge" in {{cite enc-nyc|pages=588–89}}</ref><ref name="Steinberg, pp.139, 142-43">Steinberg, pp.139, 142–43</ref><ref>Eldredge & Horenstein (2014), pp.95–96</ref>

Newton had begun to undermine Flood Rock, a {{convert|9|acre|ha|adj=on}} reef, even before starting on Hallert's Rock, removing {{convert|8,000|cuyd}} of rock from the reef. In 1885 Flood Rock was blown up as well,<ref name=Whitt>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE3D71631F931A35755C0A9609C8B63 |title=The East River is Cleaner Now. The Water Birds Say So. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 2, 2006 |access-date=April 12, 2009 |last=Whitt |first=Toni}}</ref> with Civil War General [[Philip Sheridan]] and abolitionist [[Henry Ward Beecher]] among those in attendance. Newton's daughter once more set off the blast, the biggest ever to that date and subsequently reported as the largest man-made explosion until the advent of the [[Nuclear weapon|atomic bomb]]<ref name=fed420 /><ref name=wolfe /><ref name="Steinberg, pp.139, 142-43"/> although the [[Mines in the Battle of Messines (1917)|detonation]] at the [[Battle of Messines (1917)|Battle of Messines]] in 1917 was several times larger.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}} Two years later, plans were in place to dredge Hell Gate to a consistent depth of {{convert|26|ft}}.<ref name=concrete96>Eldredge & Horenstein (2014), p.96</ref>

==In popular culture==
===Film===
* ''Hell Gate: The Watery Grave'' (1977), is a 50-minute documentary film, narrated by [[Alexander Scourby]], which covers many aspects of the waterway's history, including the clearing of the channel, the building of Hell Gate Bridge, and the [[PS General Slocum|PS ''General Slocum'']] steamship disaster.
* ''Under Hellgate Bridge'' (1999), directed by [[Michael Sergio]], is a crime drama/thriller film, set in Queens, that features the bridge.<ref>{{cite news|work=Rotten Tomatoes|title=Reviews of ''Under Hellgate Bridge'' |date=1999|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/under_hellgate_bridge/}}</ref>
* ''[[Gangs of New York]]'' (2002), directed by [[Martin Scorsese]]; the main character, Amsterdam Vallon ([[Leonardo DiCaprio]]), is sent to Hell Gate Orphanage as a child upon the death of his father

===Literature===
In [[James Fenimore Cooper]]'s historical fiction novel ''[[The Water-Witch]], or, The Skimmer of the Seas'' (first published in New York in 1830<ref>{{cite news|title=Goodreads book description of ''The Water-Witch'' by James Fenimore Cooper|work=The Water Witch|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2845989-the-water-witch}}</ref>), Hell Gate serves as the scene for an exciting pursuit of the [[brigantine]] ''Water Witch'' by HMS ''Coquette''.<ref>{{cite book|year=1836|publisher=Carey, Lea, & Blanchard| author=Cooper, James Fenimore|title=The Water-Witch, or, The Skimmer of the Seas|url=https://archive.org/details/waterwitchorski04coopgoog}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The Odyssey of The Water-Witch and a Susan Fenimore Cooper Letter|author1=Baym, Max I. |author2=Matenko, Percy |work=New York History|volume= LI|number= 1 |date=January 1970|pages= 33–41|publisher= New York State Historical Association|url=http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/articles/nyhistory/1970nyhistory-baym.html}}</ref> The ''Water Witch'' is captained by Thomas Tiller, an adventurous sailor with a romantic flair, and HMS ''Coquette'' by Captain Cornelius van Cuyler Ludlow, a principled young officer in the [[Royal Navy]] and a native of New York.

==See also==
* [[Little Hell Gate]]
* [[List of place names of Dutch origin]]
* [[Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx]]

== References ==
'''Informational notes'''
{{notelist}}

'''Citations'''
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=ruttenber>{{citation|last=Ruttenber |first=E. M. |author-link=Edward Manning Ruttenber |title=Footprints of the Red Men. Indian Geographical Names |journal=Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association |volume=6|number=2 |date=1906 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i9sTAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA16 |page=181<!--1–9, 11–235193--> |jstor=42889915}}</ref>

<ref name=vandyck-web>{{cite web |url=http://users.skynet.be/dirkbinon/ruisbroek_sauvegarde/pagina%27s/nielhellegat.htm |title=Hellegat en Hellegat |first=Vic |last=Van Dyck |language=nl |access-date=November 19, 2011}}</ref>
}}

'''Bibliography'''
* {{cite concrete}}
* {{cite book|last=Nichols |first=Michael |author-link=<!--Michael Nichols -->|title=Hell Gate: A Nexus of New York City s East River |publisher=SUNY Press |year=2018 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TNuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |isbn=<!--1438471416, -->9781438471419}}
* {{cite unbound}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource|Hell Gate}}
* [http://eastrivernyc.org/content/geography/hell-gate/index.html East River NYC] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501142500/http://www.eastrivernyc.org/content/geography/hell-gate/index.html |date=May 1, 2016 }}
* [https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Portals/37/docs/history/hellgate.pdf The Conquest of Hell Gate]

{{New York City waterways}}

{{authority control}}

{{Coord|40|47|03|N|73|55|14|W|type:waterbody_region:US-NY|display=title}}

[[Category:Randalls and Wards Islands]]
[[Category:East River]]
[[Category:Straits of Queens County, New York]]
[[Category:Straits of New York County, New York]]