ENGLISH

The Mount Washington Transit Tunnel Disaster

By Mary Jane Kuffner Hirt

Book information

Publisher
Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Year
2021
ISBN
9781439672655, 2021934134, 9781467142717
Language
english
Format
EPUB
Filesize
5 MB (5075051 bytes)
Series
Disaster
Pages
\0
Time added
2022-09-29 13:52:46
HIS036060HistoryLawLAW097000NonfictionTRA009000Transportation

Description

On Christmas Eve 1917, an overcrowded, out-of-control streetcar exited the Mount Washington tunnel, crashing into pedestrians. Twenty-three were killed and more than eighty injured in the worst transit incident in Pittsburgh history. The crash scene on Carson Street was chaotic as physicians turned the railway offices into a makeshift hospital and bystanders frantically sought to remove the injured and strewn bodies from the wreckage. Most of the victims, many women and children, were from the close-knit neighborhoods of Knoxville, Beltzhoover and Mount Oliver. In the aftermath, public outrage over the tragedy led to criminal prosecution, civil suits and the bankruptcy of the Pittsburgh Railways Company, which operated the service. Author Mary Jane Kuffner Hirt explores the tragic history of the Mount Washington transit tunnel disaster.

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