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- So the Hell Gate Bridge was the first major bridge

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that Ammann designed, but with Lindenthal,

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he was working with Lindenthal.

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His greatest arch bridge is actually the Bayonne Bridge,

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and this was completed in 1931, it was actually a year

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of records, structural records, and they all happened

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in New York City, so the Bayonne Bridge,

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the longest spanning arch, the George Washington Bridge,

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right behind us, the longest spanning suspension bridge,

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and the Empire State Building, the tallest building

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in the world, all three were completed in 1931.

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Right now, what we're gonna do is compare

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the Bayonne Bridge to the Hell Gate Bridge.

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So if you look at these two bridges side-by-side

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we see that they are both arch bridges,

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but they both are different, not only do they have

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different spans, they have different aesthetics.

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So if you compare the span of these two bridges

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we see that the Bayonne Bridge, it's much longer

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than the Hell Gate Bridge, actually the Bayonne Bridge

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span is on the order of the Brooklyn Bridge span.

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So those are different, because the Hell Gate Bridge

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was designed for railroads, so it was designed

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for 24 kips per foot.

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One kip is 1,000 pounds, remember.

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In comparison, the Bayonne Bridge was designed

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for seven kips per foot, or 7,000 pounds per linear foot.

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In that case, because they were designed

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for different loads, how much the bridge

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actually weighs was very different.

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The Hell Gate was a much heavier bridge

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than the Bayonne, despite the different span lengths.

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And if we look at the arch, the Hell Gate Bridge has an arch

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that deepens as it approaches the abutments,

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while as the Bayonne, the arch stays the same,

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it stays constant.

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I talked about the abutments on the Hell Gate Bridge

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and how they were unnecessary, and to be fair,

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on the Bayonne Bridge, they also weren't necessary,

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because, again, all the loads go down to the bottom cord

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on the Bayonne Bridge as well.

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But, Ammann isn't trying to deepen that

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and try to make a different expression of the structure.

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The Bayonne Bridge actually, the abutments, you see

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a steel skeleton there, that was intended to be covered

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in a stone facade, but because of the Depression at the time

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they decided to leave that stone facade out,

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but if we look at a sketch of what the Bayonne Bridge

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was supposed to, or was intended to look like

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when it was proposed to be designed,

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we see those stone abutments there.

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So now let's take a virtual drive across the Bayonne Bridge.

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So here are some still images, we're gonna

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scroll through them really quickly to give you

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the sense of what it might feel like to drive

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under the Bayonne Bridge.

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So now we are approaching the bridge,

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and we're getting closer and crossing,

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and we're about mid-span, crossing, crossing,

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and near the end.

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So it's really a really nice drive and a very nice

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experience to drive across the Bayonne Bridge.

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Now we're gonna switch bridges and move on to

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the George Washington Bridge, and we're gonna look at it

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from the scientific, social, and symbolic aspect.