November 1rst: Today in 1918 a New York transit train crash killed ninety-three people in the Malbone Street Wreck, one of the worst train disasters in United States history. The train was driven by a substitute driver during a strike and tried to take a six mile an hour curve at over thirty miles an hour, the rear cars derailed and smashed to splinters. The blame was never settled at the time, but the wooden train cars were considered part of the reason casualties were so high and this helped to lead to all steel cars on New York commuter lines. A good newspaper account of the wreck from the next day can be found here. The Village Voice awarded the crash site the Best Disaster-Porn Tourist Spot in their best of New York article this year which I am sure doesn’t put much of dent in the lines around Ground Zero.

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