Hell Gate, 1915-1920.

Queens has been developed to be one of New York City’s most diverse borough. Astoria is no different and it is located on the Northwest corner of Queens, New York. Astoria has now become a popular residential area for young professionals due to its fast commute to Manhattan, inexpensive housing and rich nightlife it offers.

New York Connecting Railroad, Hell Gate Bridge, Spanning East River, Wards Island & Astoria, date post 1968.

Hell Gate Bridge being constructed, ca.1916.

Hell Gate Bridge, 1916. The Hell Gate Bridge is named for the narrow and often rough waters of the tidal strait in the East River that it traverses. The bridge is officially known as the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge. Designed by civic engineer Gustav Lindenthal (who was also involved in the construction of the Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges) the bridge is actually three bridges that connect Astoria to Wards Island and Randalls Island and those islands to the mainland. The largest of the crossings is the steel through arch bridge over the East River. The railroad-only bridge saw its first train crossing on March 9, 1917, opening up an important rail connection between Long Island, Manhattan, the Bronx, and New England. This new connection made passenger travel along the busy Northeast Rail Corridor a more direct and easy journey. It also vastly improved the movement of freight as the only direct rail freight link between Long Island and the mainland. It was the world's longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge opened in 1931, and it inspired the builders of Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia and the Tyne Bridge in England.

"When the Dutch finally ceded New Netherlands to the English in 1674, they left behind a legacy of place names—'toponyms,' to use the technical term. The English, whether to avoid confusion or from lack of interest, kept many, though often in Anglicized form. Thus Breuckelen became 'Brooklyn,' Vlissingen became 'Flushing,' the Bouwerij became the 'Bowery,' and so on. Of all these descendant names, one stands out as particularly forbidding, and the ambiguity of its true meaning has invited all kinds of mythical associations and claptrap. This is 'Hell Gate,' which denotes the churlish stretch of the East River between Manhattan and Astoria, Queens, at the nexus of the 'Y' formed by the East River to the south and to the northeast and the Harlem River to the northwest..." For more on Hell Gate, check out this article by Michael Nichols in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

Arches are everywhere in New York. From bridges, to memorials, and many a Beaux-Arts facade, the arch is a motif that can blends seamlessly into the city’s architectural fabric or stand out — triumphally — in a place of honor. Take a look:

When it opened in 1916, the Hell Gate Bridge (more properly titled the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge) was the longest, heaviest, strongest steel arch bridge in the world and the only four-track long-span railroad bridge ever built. Its stunning profile combines the slightly reversed curve of its upper arc with granite-faced Roman arch towers. Stretching from the Sunnyside Railroad Yards in Queens across the turbulent confluence of the Harlem and East Rivers and Long Island Sound known as Hell Gate, to Ward's Island, on across the Little Hell Gate to Randalls Island and then over the Bronx Kill to The Bronx, the bridge was built to complete the linkage of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad system with the Pennsylvania Railroad system via the Pennsylvania Railroad tunnel under the Hudson River. Together, tunnel and bridge created an all-rail route over the Bronx Kill to The Bronx and replaced the time-consuming and expensive water link for New York and New England bound passengers and freight from the south. The Hell Gate bridge marks the apogee of American railroad power and prosperity. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the neighborhood that took its name from Hell Gate had been a pastoral area of summer homes and farms, but by 1912, when work began on the Hell Gate bridge, the river's edge had begun its conversion to an industrial area. Today the area is a mix of residential and commercial usage.