Talk:Hell Gate Bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Trains, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to rail transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. See also: WikiProject Trains to do list |
| Start | This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale. (assessment comments) |
| High | This article has been rated as high-importance within the Trains WikiProject. |
 |
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Bridges, a WikiProject which aims to expand coverage of bridges on Wikipedia. Please feel free to join us. |
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale. |
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale. |
 |
This article is part of WikiProject New York City, an effort to create, expand, and improve New York City-related articles to Wikipedia feature-quality standard. Bulletin: The next New York City meetup is Sunday June 1st. |
| Start | This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale. |
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale. |
[edit] More than just an arch
All the images "may imply" that the Hell Gate Bridge is this pretty arch, but what about the portion of the bridge that runs on the viaduct up to the Bronx? -HiFiGuy 17:45, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Strongest Bridge
The Hell Gate Bridge may indeed be the worlds strongest ( however that may be defined ) steel arch bridge. The inapposite comment about the Sydney Harbour Bridge being modified due to the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York would appear to be unfounded. The Sydney Harbour Bridge has had no significant structural modification since 2 of the four railroad tracks were removed in 1957 and replaced by three additional road lanes ( for a total of 8 ). The only aspect of the Sydney Harbour Bridge which has been "reinforced" since 2001 is an increase in the number of Arab security guards employed to obstruct and annoy pedestrians and cyclists. Merkanmich 11:56, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
Comment about strongest steel arch bridge removed as the Sydney harbour bridge is quoted as being the strongest steel arch bridge in the world (ref: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=heritage.show&id=4301067). The bridge has never been structurally reinforced since it's opening in 1932. It is speculated by this writer that the bridge is actually stronger than it needs to be under normal conditions, since the removal of two of the original four rail lines in the late 1950s. Two of the rail lines were replaced by two additional roadway lanes. Cityrail operates ~50000kg cars in 8 car sets giving each empty train a tare mass of approx. 400 tonnes. With two rail lines it would then be possible for a maximum empty loading of 800 tonnes, which equates to approximately 800 cars. Over two laneways of 1.6 km each, that would equate to 0.25 motorcars per meter of laneway, which is not a realistic traffic load unless traffic is near stationary. As such, there has been no need to re-inforce the bridge.
Additionally, any re-inforcements to the bridge would not make any appreciable impact to fending off a terrorist attack which would probably involve either a bomb attack or crashing an aircraft into the bridge.
Dick.clements 01:09, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
