When I found out about it... you know I had to let you know about it.
The Great Molasses Flood
Commercial Street
If you had to choose how to die, drowning in molasses would probably not rank high on your list. On Jan. 15, 1919, 21 people, a dozen horses and at least one cat had no choice. A 58-foot-high, 90-foot-wide cast-iron tank holding 2.2 million gallons of molasses burst, sending a tsunami of the viscous liquid down Commercial at 35 m.p.h., destroying houses, commercial buildings and a part of the elevated railroad.
Stand here and imagine a molasses tsunami.Today, only a small plaque at the entrance to Puopolo Park commemorates the disaster. But climb up the terrace (which looks like a stone medieval rampart), look out over Commercial Street toward the harbor and imagine a three-story wall of molasses flowing past.
More info:
Dark Tide - Steven Puleo's book is the definitive work on the disaster and places it in its social and political context - in which the Powers that Be of the day were only too willing to blame anarchists instead of shoddy construction.
The Molasses Flood of January 15, 1919 - A very detailed account from Yankee Magazine, 1/65. http://edp.org/molyank.htm
The Great Boston Molasses Disaster - Still more. http://members.tripod.com/~earthdude1/molasses/molasses.html
2 comments:
I suppose in January it was too cold to rot and stink.
Does molasses freeze? Seems like that would have made cleanup easier. They could let it freeze and then chip it off. (That worked when I got gum on a jacket once. But it always had to be cut out of my hair as a kid...after scrubbing with peanut butter didn't do much.)
well and there was that whole 2 million gallon part, that's a lot of chipping and what with the saltwater right there... you know. I just don't get why they had to shoot the horses but i guess it took them a while to figure that one out- about the seawater i mean. i feel bad about laughing but that's an f-d up way to die.
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