Hello everyone and welcome back to Scary Interesting.

In this video, we're going to examine three of the worst disasters in human history.

Frustratingly, two of these seem to have been entirely preventable, if not for a series of mistakes made by the people involved.

Then, in contrast, the third story required a once-in-a-lifetime natural event to occur for what

eventually transpired.

But either way, in each of them, the effects were beyond devastating.

As always, viewer discretion is advised.

By the early 1900s, trains were more than the early 1900s, trains were moving passengers and freight across parts of the Pacific Northwest that had been all but impassable just a few years before.

Rail transportation had become relatively safe and efficient, but collisions, derailments, and other accidents weren't unheard of. This is especially true in mountainous areas known for steep grades, rugged terrain,

and harsh winters. Conditions like these are expected and planned for in the Pacific

Northwest, but in early 1910, a winter storm of almost biblical proportions would result

in one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. Wellington, Washington is

a small unincorporated town about 80 miles east of Seattle that was founded in 1893 as a depot

for the Great Northern Railway. Despite its small size, Wellington had a hotel, a general

store, a post office, a small power plant, and a modest hospital. Wellington also sits at about 4,000 feet above sea level and is regularly hit by some of

the region's harshest weather.

But despite this, it is actually one of the only passable routes through that area of the

Cascade Mountains.

In the mid-1890s, the Great Northern Railway hired well-known engineer John Frank Stevens

to determine if it would make a suitable rail route.

Stevens concluded that it was possible, but this meant that at least one tunnel would have to be bored through a mountain known as Windy Mountain.

Construction of this first tunnel began in the summer of 1897 and was completed a few days before Christmas in the year 1900.

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