Hell Gate The Great Blast of Flood Rock in 1885 The greatest quantity - PDF document

The Conquest of Hell Gate The Great Blast of Flood Rock in 1885 “The greatest quantity of explosives ever attempted in a single opera- tion.” Fifty-thousand people crowded both shores of the East River to witness the great underwater explosion that leveled the rocky reef which made navigating Hell Gate very hazardous. In the mid-1800’s, the New York Harbor Commis- dredging and underwater demolition to deepen sion requested Federal assistance in opening up Newark Bay and Kill van Kull to accommodate New York’s Hell Gate. The report deeper draft ocean vessels. The requesting Federal aid for remov- Corps’ accomplishment brings to ing obstructions to navigation mind a famous earlier project, said, “For several years there has Hell Gate on the East River, a been a gradual but constant in- project that also called for under- crease in the tonnage of vessels en- water demolition work on even a gaged in foreign commerce… and grander scale. their draft is still increasing. It is imprudent to send a ship of the Deepening today’s channels from largest class to sea.” 35 ft. to 40 ft. also required inno- vative demolition work but under Although that report asking for much better controls, to be sure Federal support to open up a New than those of a century ago. York Harbor channel was written nearly 150 years ago, the The story of Hell Gate marks the need is still present today. The beginning of the civil works U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mission performed by the U.S. since its earliest days continues its Army Corps of Engineers. It was mission of maintaining the depths of federal a massive challenge for the Corps fraught with navigation channels in one of the nation’s “endless obstructions.” busiest ports. Hell Gate is located on the East River at Recently, the Corps finished work on another the confluence of the Harlem River. From difficult navigation project in New York Harbor— Manhattan, Hell Gate runs from 90th to 100th

Streets. It connects Long Island Sound with New Island Basin, begins its relentless drive—and the York Harbor. struggle for mastery is on. Four hours after en- tering the sound this tide has changed the flow of Captains of vessels traversing this perilous one- the river which is now down the narrow ‘sluice- mile passage of the East River described it in logs way’ from the Bronx and down Little Hell Gate dating back to the early 1700’s, as a key gateway Channel into Hell Gate Basin, counterclockwise to the Atlantic, marked with a giant whirlpool, around Millrock and as far down the river as the punctuated with rocks, upcoming tide will allow. reefs, and islands. To a sea captain worth his salt, it To this confusion of ebbs THE BRONX must have appeared as and flows, currents and the gate to Hell. eddies, add the rocks, reefs, and the freakish The reason sea captains whims of the winds. At RANDALL'S viewed it as hellish ebb tide the process was ISLAND was the fact that the East E reversed, but no less con- T A River is actually a tidal fusing.” G L stream whose tides con- L E H flict with waters in Other historians of the E L T Long Island Sound period reported that T I L about one in 50 ships try- As Claude Rust in an ar- WARD'S ing to run the gauntlet of ISLAND ticle for Military Engi- Hell Gate was either neer (1971) wrote, “When damaged or sunk in the HELL the tide rises on the 1850’s. In an average GATE eastern seaboard it sets year, 1,000 ships ran into New York Harbor aground in Hell Gate. and, farther to the north- east, into Long Island If Hell Gate could be QUEENS MILL Sound. At New York Bay made relatively safe for ROCK it splits at the tip of Man- navigation, several ocean hattan, one current push- miles could be saved in ing up the Hudson and reaching the Atlantic. No through the Harlem River, longer would ships sit BLACKWELL ISLAND the other entering the idle burning coal and MANHATTAN East River. Here, with the wasting money waiting ISLAND horizontal movement im- for the tide. A French en- peded by the opposite flow gineer, Monsieur Ben- of the Harlem River and jamin Maillefert, was the narrowness of the hired in 1850 by Mr. E. channel up to the Sound, Strong cross currents combined with shallow rocky Meriam, “a public-spir- the huge basin of Hell waters earned Hell Gate it’s name and reputation ited citizen of New York,” for being a navigator’s nightmare. Gate begins to fill. to remove some of the larger rocks in the Hell The waters, like wild beasts, circle their Gate area. Meriam sought donations from New confines, impatient for the chance to escape. York merchants to remove some of the rock “pri- The downcoming flow of the Harlem River is then marily because Congress was not in a spending stopped by the strength of the escaping currents mood.” Maillefert, who had worked with the Brit- and sent back up through Little Hell Gate and ish Royal Engineers agreed to remove Pot Rock the Bronx Kills, and the channels to the west, like and Ways Reef for $15,000. The method of rock a sluiceway, is filled with swift seething water removal was unique for the time calling for “the racing up to the Bronx shore. blasting of rocks under water without drilling.” Maillefert proposed to lower a canister of gunpow- This flow continues for hours, building up to a der to the rock by rope via a lengthy pole, and high tide along the East River shore. Then at a then set off the explosive from a safe distance. time when other waters would settle into slack, the downcoming tide, which has been delayed four The first blast knocked four feet off the top of Pot hours by the distance and the drag of the Long Rock and the project was on. The bombardment

continued for several months. A barrage of 284 “These few words from a man of action did more charges set off on Pot Rock gave a clearance of to move Congress than all the pleas of the past. It 18 feet, and 240 on Frying Pan and Ways Reef suddenly appropriated $20,000 for carrying on the lowered them 9 1/2 and 13 feet, respectively, work under Lt. Bartlett of the Army Corps of En- from the surface.” gineers. But this fund was soon exhausted, along with the Frenchman’s verve, and the work once According to Rust’s account: “The relentless blast- again came to a halt,” writes Rust. ing of Hell Gate went on till March 1852, when the law of averages caught up with Maillefert. Interest in clearing obstructions from Hell Gate After placing a 125-pound charge of powder atop languished until after Civil War hostilities. A city a rock, he took what he thought were the lead surveyor and civil engineer suggested filling in wires to the submerged mine and paid out the Hell Gate thereby making room for an anticipated line till he and the supply boat were a safe dis- growing population across the East River from tance from the explosion site. Upon touching the Manhattan. However, Congress thought other- wires to the battery terminals in his boat, he blew wise, saying it was more prudent in terms of costs the other boat clear out of the water and was to demolish the rocks at Hell Gate. thrown 50 feet in the air himself. Of the five men in the operation, three were killed and Maillefert In January 1867, Maj. Gen. Andrew Humphreys, and his assistant were disabled.” Chief of Engineers, assigned Lt. Col. John New- ton from New York District to study the best plan Maillefert’s efforts dismantled the whirlpool of attack for removal of Hallet’s Point reef and almost entirely with the added benefit of easing the subsequent removal of Pot Rock, Frying Pan, tide flows. He claimed that if his operations were Heel Tap, Shelldrake Rock, Ways Reef and other to continue that Hell Gate could be the safest smaller rocks and reefs. entrance to the Harbor. At 11:13:50.2 AM , on October 10, 1885, with all charges in place, the cavern at Flood Rock flooded with water —12 year old Miss Mary Newton pressed the key that set the charge and snapped the shutter of the camera that took this picture.