Re: (rshsdepot) Hell's Gate

["JIMBEAR" <ribear_@_cox.net>]

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>
To: "Julian (Jay) Underwood" <jp.underwood_@_ns.sympatico.ca>; <rshsdepot@lists.railfan.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2004 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: (rshsdepot) Hell's Gate


> Where is the original message?

> : ----- Original Message -----
> : From: JIMBEAR <ribear_@_cox.net>
> : To: <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>; Henry Rosenberg <hwr5@columbia.edu>
> : Cc: Les & Phyllis <lesphyl_@_earthlink.net>; Rick Pinard <PinardR@rferl.org>;
> : Jamie <nyclincoln_@_aol.com>; RSHS Depot <rshsdepot@lists.railfan.net>
> : Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 4:01 AM
> : Subject: Re: (rshsdepot) Hell's Gate
> : 
> : > ----- Original Message -----
> : > From: "fred fep" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>
> : > To: "Henry Rosenberg" <hwr5_@_columbia.edu>
> : > Cc: "Les & Phyllis" <lesphyl_@_earthlink.net>; "Rick Pinard"
> : <PinardR_@_rferl.org>; "Jamie" <nyclincoln@aol.com>; "RSHS
> : > Depot" <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
> : > Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 12:33 AM
> : > Subject: (rshsdepot) Hell's Gate
> : >
> : >
> : > The explosion was the largest ever until Hiroshima.
> : >
> : > 
> : > Association guided ships through the passage. In the 1870s the reefs
> : > were blasted; supposedly the explosion was heard as far away as Newark.
> : > 
> : > ...from http://www.astorialic.org/topics/names.htm
> : >
> : >
> : Someone at the Astoria Historical Society needs to do a better job of
> : checking
> : their facts. The greatest explosion in history before the first atomic
> : bomb occurred
> : at Halifax, NS during WWI. A French munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, loaded
> : with nearly 200 tons of TNT, 10 tons, of gun cotton, 35 tons of benzol,
> : and 2,300
> : tons of picric acid (used in manufacturing gunpowder) collided with
> : another ship in
> : the channel and caught fire. It exploded 20 minutes later. The resulting
> : explosion
> : completely obliterated the 320 foot long, 3,000 ton ship (one of its
> : anchors was
> : found two miles away)  and killed more than 1,900 people eventually died
> : as a
> : result of the explosion in Halifax that day. During the development of the
> : atomic
> : bomb. Robert Oppenheimer and the other scientists used the Halifax
> : destruction
> : to calculate the effects of the atomic bomb.
> : 
> : BTW, the French crew abandoned the ship and left it adrift. It came to
> : rest
> : against the railroad pier. The station master sent a last telegraph
> : message seconds
> : before the explosion, describing the peril and saying goodbye.
> : 
> : Jim.

Paul,

These were the original message from "fred fep" about blasting the channel 
at Hell Gate in the East River, and my reply to it from back in January, 2003.

Jim.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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