1/12/2024 0 Comments Boston molasses flood factsPRESS: Even today, the flood lives in neighborhood folklore. And the molasses flood is so big that it knocks off the front page the Prohibition Amendment, which essentially passes the night of the molasses flood, and it knocks the Versailles peace talks, the talks that ended World War I, off the front page. PULEO: Boston has seven daily newspapers at the time. PRESS: For a short time, the story was all anyone could talk about. PULEO: That architects need to show their work, that engineers need to sign and seal their plans, that building inspectors need to come out and look at projects - all of that comes about as a result of the great Boston molasses flood case. PRESS: Stephen Puleo says it set the stage for future class-action lawsuits and completely changed the relationship between business and government. PULEO: The first case in which expert witnesses were called to a great extent - engineers, metallurgists, architects, technical people. PRESS: Shortly after the flood, 119 plaintiffs took up a civil lawsuit against U.S. And unfortunately, we pulled his arm off. HOWE: And there was an arm sticking out from underneath the wheel of a truck. He and other sailors were some of the first people on the scene, as he recalled in a 1981 interview with the Stoneham Public Library. PRESS: Harry Howe was on leave from the Navy for the weekend. HARRY HOWE: We saw this big cloud of brown dust and dirt and a slight noise. PRESS: When the tank burst, it unleashed a 30-foot-high wave of 2.3 million gallons of molasses that moved 35 mph down Commercial Street. It was very customary for children of the North End to go and collect molasses with pails. PULEO: There were often comments made by people around the vicinity that this tank would shudder and groan every time it was full. Though only a few years old at the time of the flood, the tank showed signs of instability. PRESS: The tank was used to store molasses, which came on ships from the Caribbean, until it could be transported to a nearby distillery where it was expected to become rum in the last days before Prohibition. PULEO: This was one of the busiest commercial sites in all of Boston. But a hundred years ago, you'd find a bustling port, a municipal yard and an elevated railway. JULIA PRESS, BYLINE: Stephen Puleo is the author of "Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919." We weave through narrow streets to the top of Copp's Hill for a panoramic view of the spot where a 50-foot-tall steel tank once stood.īaseball fields now line Boston Harbor. STEPHEN PULEO: We're in Boston's North End on Hanover Street, which is, I would say, the main street in the North End for activity, for businesses, for restaurants. On its centennial, reporter Julia Press looks back at the accident's history and impact. The lack of electrical equipment available at the time made cleanup difficult, and it took days before officials were able to assess the full extent of the damage and determine the death toll.In Boston on January 15, 1919, a tank of molasses burst, releasing a thick, sugary tsunami that killed 21 people and injured 150. The elevated railroad along Commercial Street collapsed and an alert conductor prevented an inbound train from plunging into the abyss of sugar and syrup. Copp’s Hill, which is located on the far side of Commercial Street, created a natural barrier that helped contain the disaster to the waterfront neighborhood. Houses made of wood along Commercial street were reduced to kindling, while brick buildings sustained significant damage. Firemen were crushed and killed under the weight of the fire station, which was flattened within seconds by the rush of goop. Food, pigs, and barrels of beer were swept up in the wave of molasses that crashed through the streets and hardened into a solid mass by nightfall. The molasses flood leveled homes, shipping docks, warehouses, and Engine 31 of Boston’s Fire Department.
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