A late afternoon Acela Train passes over the Hell Gate Bridge at Randalls Island en route to Boston from New York Penn Station. The trestle portion of the bridge is known as the "Little Hell Gate", as it once spanned a natural channel separating Randalls and Wards Islands. This channel between the Harlem and East Rivers was filled in starting in 1936, thereby joining the two islands in to one. Confusion remains among New Yorkers today as to the name of the island and whether "meet me at Randalls Island" is in someway different than "meet me at Wards Island". Of course the multitude of local road signs which liberally use the two names interchangeably doesn't help matters. The island is part of the borough of Manhattan, and today, is host to a sprawl of playing fields, the NYFD Training Academy, a wastewater treatment facility and the Kirby Center for the criminally insane.
