Map of Hell Gate and East River, New York City

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Unknown
Map of Hell Gate and East River, New York City
1887

About the Item

Original, extremely rare first edition map (1887), full title "Hell Gate and East River from S. End of Blackwell's Island to Lawrence's Point including Little Hell Gate and Mouth of Harlem River." The map depicts New York City's Hell Gate, the East River, the Harlem River, Blackwell's Island (now named Roosevelt Island), Ward's Island, and Randall's Island, as well as portions Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens focusing on the East River from the southern tip of Roosevelt Island to the northern tip of Randall's Island and the lower Harlem River. The three islands (Blackwell's Island, Ward's Island, and Randall's Island) are mapped in detail with individual buildings and roadways identified. The map's Queens and Manhattan portions are lesser detailed and only along the riverside. The map also shows soundings, tides, currents, the location of channel lights and buoys. An interesting feature is a tipped-in compass on the map's upper right. The map's real focus is the river. The passage between Blackwell's and Ward's Island was first named Helegat, meaning 'bright passage', by the Dutch. When the English acquired the region, Helegat it was anglicized to Hell Gate, perhaps a more appropriate name since the shoals, rocks, reefs, and swirling tides caused the sinking of many ships. To sailors the gate appeared as a giant whirlpool, punctuated with rocks, reefs, and islands. By the early 1880s, the endless loss of ships caused the Army Corps of Engineers to undertake project of deepening the channel including blowing up the rocks reefs. The 1885 "Great Blast of Flood Rock", the largest manmade explosion to that date. The debris from the explosion was subsequently cleared out and used to fill the narrow channel between Randall's Island and Ward's Island, creating a single large island, although still noted as separate Islands. Although the U.S. Coast Survey issued this map after the demolition of the shoals near Ward's Island and Flood Rock, most of these are still shown. This may explain the map's extraordinary scarcity. Only three other examples are known, all of a later date, and both held in institutional collections: one example dated 1895 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library; a second example dated 1892 at Stanford University; a third example in a private collection. Image size: 26 1/2 x 51 3/4 inches.

Creation Year:
1887
Dimensions:
Height: 26.5 in (67.31 cm)Width: 51.75 in (131.45 cm)
Medium:
Lithograph
Movement & Style:
Realist
Period:
1880-1889
Condition:
Water damage along margins, small amount of missing paper on the lower left side (mostly in the margin), some water staining on lower right corner. Otherwise the map is in good condition.
Gallery Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU5185102012

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