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IT WENT TO HELL GATE: Here in the city, we all learned what happens when you don't paint bridges. They start to crumble. Apparently it took the federal government a little bit longer than most to learn this simple lesson. But learn it they did. After decades of neglect, Congress voted recently to spend $55 million to paint the crumbling Hell Gate Bridge.
You probably already know that chunks of concrete from the bridge, which carries Amtrak and Conrail trains across the East River, have been falling onto the streets of Astoria for years.
Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Astoria), who lobbied hard to get repairs made, said it is "no small miracle" that pieces of the span haven't conked someone on the head by now. And Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said he is amazed that "one of the world's greatest feats of engineering and bridge building" was allowed to deteriorate to the point of crumbling.
"After 60 years of neglect, this treasure will finally be painted and repaired," he said. "It will not rust. It will not fall into the river."
The people who have to walk the streets under the span, believed to be among the largest railroad bridges in the world, just hope pieces...