Hell Gate
Coordinates: 40°46′54″N 73°55′25″W / 40.781698°N 73.923516°W
Hell Gate is a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York City in the US. It separates Astoria, Queens from Randall's and Wards Islands (formerly two separate islands, now joined by landfill).
The name "Hell Gate" is a corruption of the Dutch phrase Hellegat (it first appeared on a Dutch map as Helle Gadt), which could mean either "bright strait" or "clear opening", and it was originally applied to the entirety of the East River. Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, the first European known to have navigated the strait, described it in his journals during his 1614 voyage aboard the Onrust. Hellegat is a fairly common toponym for waterways in the Low Countries, with at least 20 separate examples. Because explorers found navigation hazardous in this New World place of rocks and converging tide-driven currents (from the Long Island Sound, Harlem River strait, Upper Bay of New York Harbor, and lesser channels, some of which have been filled), the Anglicization stuck.
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