The Harlem River, flowing into the East River, divides Manhattan from
Ward's Island, and this, with Randall's Island to the north and
Blackwell's Island to the south, forms the group of "East River
Islands" upon which are the penal and charitable institutions of the
great city. The chief of these are on Blackwell's Island, a long,
narrow strip stretching nearly two miles in the centre of East River,
and barely more than two hundred yards wide. It covers one hundred and
twenty acres, and has the penitentiary, almshouses, workhouses and
hospitals, the spacious buildings being of granite quarried there by
the convicts. Over on the New York City shore is the extensive
Bellevue Hospital. In cases of vagrancy and minor crimes, the offender
is said to be "sent up to the Island." Ward's Island has a surface of
two hundred acres, and here are the Lunatic Asylum and Emigrant
Hospital. Randall's Island has the institutions for children and
idiots, while upon Hart's Island, out in Long Island Sound, are
industrial schools and the pauper cemetery. The buildings are all upon
a most elaborate scale, and it costs over $2,000,000 for their annual
maintenance. A steamboat ride along East River, with these extensive
establishments and their well-kept grounds passing in review, is a
most interesting suburban excursion.
The Long Island shore to the southward of Ward's Island is thrust out
in a way that curves and contracts the East River passage, which,
turning eastward just below where the Harlem River comes in, goes
through the famous Hell Gate to reach the Sound. Formerly, the swift
tidal currents boiled and eddied through this dangerous pass,
Hallett's Point, jutting out from Long Island, narrowing the channel,
and Pot Rock, Flood Rock, the Gridiron and other reefs making
navigation perilous. Many were the wrecks here, and frequent
ineffective efforts were made to improve the passage. The Government
finally undertook the work in 1866 under a comprehensive plan
projected by General Newton. His first task was the removal of the
Hallett's Point reef, a mass of rock projecting three hundred feet
into the stream and throwing the whole tidal current coming in from
the Sound against the great opposing rock called the Gridiron. He
first sunk a shaft upon the Point and excavated the inland side so
that it made a perpendicular wall which was curved around, and
designed for the future edge of the river. From the shaft, tunnels
were bored into the reef under the river in radiating directions,
being connected by concentric galleries. The design was to remove as
much rock as possible without letting the water in from overhead, and
then to blow the rocky roof and supporting columns into fragments and
remove them at leisure. This work began in 1869, the shaft being sunk
thirty-two feet below mean low water and the tunnels drilled out,
inclining downward under the river. In 1876 the task was finished, and
thousands of separate dynamite blasts had been placed in the roof and
supporting columns, ready for the explosion on Sunday, September 24th.
This being the greatest artificial explosion ever attempted, there was
much trepidation shown in New York for fear of the shock, while
everywhere the keenest interest was taken in the result. The blast was
entirely successful, being discharged by General Newton's little
child, who touched the electric key. The calculation had been so
accurately made that the great reef was pulverized, and the fragments
fell into the spaces excavated beneath without causing more than a
slight tremor in the adjacent region. By a similar system and more
extensive work, Flood Rock was afterwards removed from mid-channel,
the second great blast reducing it to fragments, being discharged in
October, 1885. The terrors of Hell Gate are gone, though the tide
still flows swiftly through the strait.