Hell Gate Bridge

Hell Gate is a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York City. It separates Astoria, Queens, from Randall's and Wards Islands.

The removal of obstructive rocks from Hell Gate, a narrow tidal strait in New York City's East River and a major water transportation route, began in 1849, when French engineer Benjamin Maillefert, cleared some of the rocks. Then in 1851, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, led by General John Newton, began to do the job, in an operation which was to span 70 years. On September 24, 1876, the Corps used 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg) of explosives to blast the rocks, which was followed by further blasting. The process was started by excavating under Hallets reef from Astoria. Cornish miners, assisted by steam drills, dug galleries under the reef, which were then interconnected. They later drilled holes for explosives. A patent was issued for the detonating device. After the explosion, the rock debris was dredged and dropped into a deep part of the river. This was not repeated at the later Flood Rock explosion. On October 10, 1885, the Corps carried out the largest explosion in this process, annihilating Flood Rock with 300,000 pounds (140,000 kg) of explosives. The blast was felt as far away as Princeton, New Jersey (50 miles). It sent a geyser of water 250 feet (76 m) in the air. The blast has been described as "the largest planned explosion before testing began for the atomic bomb", although the detonation at the Battle of Messines in 1917 was larger. Some of the rubble from the detonation was used in 1890 to fill the gap between Great Mill Rock and Little Mill Rock, merging the two islands into a single island, Mill Rock.

Astoria Park is a 59.96-acre (24.26 ha) public park in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The park is situated on the eastern shore of the Hell Gate, a strait of the East River, between Ditmars Boulevard to the north and Hoyt Avenue to the south. The Robert F. Kennedy (Triborough) and Hell Gate Bridges respectively pass over the park's southern and northern sections. Astoria Park contains a playground, a soccer field, a running track, a skate park, and courts for tennis, basketball, and bocce. Astoria Park also includes the Astoria Play Center, which consists of a recreation center and a pool. The park and play center are maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks). While Astoria Park was planned in 1905, the land was not acquired until October 1913. Astoria Park was formally named after the surrounding neighborhood in December 1913 and recreational facilities gradually opened within the park over the two following decades. The pool and bathhouse were designed by John Hatton during a Works Progress Administration project in 1935–1936 and was used for the United States Olympic Trials for swimming during 1936, 1952, and 1964. The park was extensively renovated in the 1980s and the late 2010s. The Astoria Play Center was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2007.

Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Islands, in New York County, New York City, separated from Manhattan Island by the Harlem River, from Queens by the East River and Hell Gate, and from the Bronx by the Bronx Kill. The two islands were formerly separated, with Randalls Island to the north of Wards Island. The channel between them, Little Hell Gate, was infilled by the early 1960s. A third, smaller island, Sunken Meadow Island, was located east of Randalls Island and was connected to it in 1955. The island had a population of 1,648 living on 2.09 square kilometers (520 acres) in 2010. Most of the island is parkland, spanning a total of 432.69 acres (175.10 ha), and managed by Randall's Island Park Alliance. The park offers 91 athletic fields, a driving range, greenways, playgrounds and picnic grounds. The island also has a history of being used for asylums, hospitals, and cemeteries, and is currently home to several public facilities, including a psychiatric hospital known as the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center a Drug and Alcohol Treatment facility named Odyssey House, a daycare, 2 state police stations, FDNY fire academy, a DEP wastewater treatment plant, Icahn Stadium, HELP Clarke Thomas Mens Homeless Shelter, Keener Employment Homeless Mens Shelter, Schwartz Homeless Mens Shelter, HELP USA Supportive Employment Center, and an Urban Farm. Outside of these institutions and buildings, there is no residential housing for the general public on the island. The island is crossed by the Triborough and Hell Gate bridges. The island can be reached by the Triborough Bridge; the Wards Island Bridge, which serves pedestrians and bicyclists and links the island to East Harlem in Manhattan; or by the Randalls Island Connector, a pedestrian and cycling bridge crossing the Bronx Kill and connecting to the Port Morris neighborhood of the Bronx. Randalls Island is the home of three music festivals: Governors Ball Music Festival, Panorama Music Festival, and Electric Zoo Festival.

River Crest Sanitarium was a New York State licensed mental hospital located in Astoria, Queens. River Crest was founded in 1896 by John J. Kindred (1864-1937), a Virginia native who moved to Queens and was elected to the House of Representatives, serving from 1911 to 1913 and 1921 to 1929.

HandCrafting Justice (HCJ) was an alternative trading organization that at its prime worked with approximately 2,000 women in 18 developing countries. It was started in October 1997 as a project of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and was dissolved in January 2016. HCJ was a member of the Fair Trade Federation and Co-op America.

St. John's Preparatory School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York City, New York. It is located within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn.

The Charles Poletti Power Project was a power station located in northeastern Queens, named after politician Charles Poletti. An 885-megawatt oil and natural gas-fired facility originally known as Astoria 6, it started generating electricity in 1977, and was gradually phased out starting in 2002, replaced by a newer, cleaner facility on the same site in 2005, Astoria Energy. The plant was shuttered in 2010 following a lawsuit and years of community opposition. It was one of the dirtiest power plants in the state while it was operating, and pollution from the plant was said to contribute to high rates of asthma in the surrounding neighborhood of Astoria, giving it the nickname "Asthma Alley". In 2021, New York State approved a plan to build a 100-megawatt battery system, the East River Storage System, on the site, in order to store and discharge renewable energy.

Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center is a maximum-security facility for the mentally ill on Wards Island in New York City, operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health as one of two psychiatric hospitals in the state that treat felony patients. The building, described as "fortresslike", is adjacent to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center. Of its more than 200 patients, 50 are deemed criminally insane; it houses pre-trial detainees unfit to stand trial as well as convicted defendants granted an insanity plea. Among its famous historical inmates was murderer and cannibal Daniel Rakowitz.

The Manhattan Psychiatric Center is a New York-state run psychiatric hospital on Wards Island in New York City. As of 2009, it was licensed for 509 beds, but holds only around 200 patients. The current building is 17 stories tall. The building strongly resembles the main building of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens. It is adjacent to Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, a specialized facility for patients with criminal convictions.

The John McEnroe Tennis Academy (JMTA) is a tennis academy founded by tennis Hall of Famer John McEnroe in New York City. The academy was founded in September 2010, on a 20-court (10 deco turf, 10 clay courts) $18 million tennis complex, designed by Ricardo Zurita, on Randalls Island in Manhattan. McEnroe launched the academy in collaboration with Claude Okin, managing partner of Sportime New York. McEnroe's teaching philosophy emphasizes short intense periods of tennis training balanced by plenty of time pursuing other sports and activities.Alumni include Noah Rubin, who won the Boys' Singles tournament at Wimbledon in July 2014, and the 2014 U.S. Tennis Association's Boys 18s National Championships in both singles and doubles the following month, is a product of the academy. In September 2014, Rubin was ranked the No. 1 Division 1 college freshman by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) while playing for Wake Forest University, and sophomore Jamie Loeb – another product of the academy – was named the No. 1 Division 1 female college player while playing for University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Sportime Randall's Island Tennis Center is a tennis facility located in Randalls Island Park in New York City. It is the home of the New York Sportimes team of World TeamTennis (WTT).