Well in the NY Times article, they're referring to it as Hell Gate. So happy 100th.
Tim
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Looking at Lionel' s website I see it as both Hellgate and Hell Gate, but never as Hellsgate.
All of my NYC maps show it as Hell Gate. I'm sure that the locals have their own names for it.
Sean
I believe that the water way near the bridge where the currents and tides of the East River, Long Island Sound and the Bay come together create a challenge for navigation. Hence it got the name of Hell's Gate. I recall from a couple of trips through there decades ago on an old Air-Sea rescue boat that the currents do push you around if you are not careful. I've heard it called both Hell Gate and Hell's Gate.
conductor earl is correct. The currents in the east river under the bridge are so bad that if you tried to swim it, you would drown. So that is why the river under the bridge is called Hells Gate.
HellSgate is in the Fraser River in British Columbia. The CN tracks are on one side of the river and the CP tracks on the other side.
Bill
Sean007 posted:Looking at Lionel' s website I see it as both Hellgate and Hell Gate, but never as Hellsgate.
All of my NYC maps show it as Hell Gate. I'm sure that the locals have their own names for it.
Sean
Yep, them locals have their own names for things around there, doesn't even matter if the name is Literally carved in STONE
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Doug
I've navigated a boat through thr Hell gate several times in recent years. To traverse the East River one needs to coordinate with the tide or you'll get a 5 knot push against you and go nowhere. At the gate it's a sharp 'S' turn where the waters depth goes from around 35' to nearly 100', from attempts in the 1900s to blast rock from the channel bottom to control the tide rush. It didn't work. You can see water boils next to Randall's Island that have to be avoided. Always fun when you share the transit with large ships
Chris,
I do remember the skipper of our boat, the SES Seahorse, about the same size as a PT boat, aiming toward the East River as we were leaving the harbor for the Sound and letting the current push us over to where we wanted to go. My only experience with something like this was when I was piloting a boat in a canal in France. I was told ahead of time to aim upstream on a small river that I needed to cross, away from a dam in the river, and to let the current push me down stream and back into the canal on the other side. They had some crude markers to guide me and I was warned to use full throttle or I would end up stuck on or over the dam. Quite a heart stopper!
I didn't know about the underwater attempts to correct the Hell's Gate currents. Very interesting.
Earl
Challenger 3980...Lighten up Doug....
