#148 The Great Blizzard of 1888

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2013

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This year is the 125th anniversary of one of the worst storms to ever wreck havoc upon New York City, the now-legendary mix of wind and snow called the Great Blizzard of 1888. Its memory was again conjured up a few months ago as people struggled to compare Hurricane Sandy with some devastating event in New York's past. And indeed, the Blizzard and Sandy have several disturbing similarities. But the battering snow-hurricane of 1888, with freezing temperatures and drifts three stories high, was made worse by the condition of New York's transportation and communication systems, all unprepared for 36 hours of continual snow and wind. The storm struck in the early hours of Monday, and so thousands were attempting to make their way to work. It would be the worst commute in New York City history! Fallen telephone and telegraph poles became a hidden threat under the quickly accumulating drifts. Elevated trains were frozen in place, their passengers unable to get out for hours. Many died simply trying to make their way back home on foot, including Roscoe Conkling, a power broker of New York's Republican Party. But there were moments of amusement too. Saloons thrived, and actors trudged through to the snow in time for their performances, And for P.T. Barnum, the show must always go on! Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bowery Boys episode 148, the Blizzard of 1888.
0:05.2	Hey, it's The Bowery Boys.
0:06.7	Hey.
0:08.5	The Bowery Boys is brought to you by eurochipo.com.
0:13.1	Eurochipo's editors inspect and recommend the best budget hotels in Europe.
0:18.6	On the web at eurochipo.com.
0:22.4	Hi there. Welcome to The Bowery Boys. This is Greg Young.
0:25.1	And this is Tom Myers.
0:26.6	On today's show, we are celebrating an anniversary of sorts of tragic, crazy event that happened in New York in March of 1888.
0:37.8	A crazy coincidence when you think about it, Greg, because this subject, the Blizzard of 1888, is something that you and I discussed doing several months ago, you know, leading into the winter season.
0:50.2	However, of course, our plans were disrupted by Hurricane Sandy.
0:54.3	So today's topic, the Blizzard of 1888 will have some parallels actually to what recently happened in New York in November of 2012.
1:02.8	This was a storm of such ferocity, of such sheer snowfall that actually altered the course of New York's history and facilitated some major changes in life here in New York.
1:12.8	You know, several of the sources that I checked out for this Greg referred to this as the most significant weather disaster in New York City.
1:19.8	History others have called it America's most famous storm.
1:22.8	I'd be curious to know if any of these still stand today, post Sandy and post Katrina and post other disasters that have been falling us.
1:29.8	And this storm didn't bring the most snow that the city would ever experience.
1:33.8	There would be blizzards with more snowfall that would hit the city just about one every decade since.
1:39.8	But it's the combination of factors behind the Blizzard of 1888 that made it so impressive and so destructive.
1:46.8	It's shutdown transportation. It's shut down nearly all forms of communication.
1:51.8	Keep in mind, this is the Arab for radio and television news. This is the Arab for widespread telephones before refrigeration.
1:58.8	So imagine, if you will, that you live back in 1888, just whatever strata of life you want to put yourself in here, maybe an uptown gentleman or a downtown lady in five points.
	...

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