The Trolley of Death

Описание: 106 years ago this week, a terrible accident took place within sight of South Station. November 7, 1916 was election day in Boston, but it was an otherwise completely ordinary autumn afternoon for the passengers who packed themselves into streetcar number 393 of the Boston Elevated Railway for their evening commute through South Boston to South Station and Downtown Crossing. The everyday monotony of the trip home was shattered in an instant, when the streetcar crashed through the closed gates of the Summer Street bridge and plunged through the open drawbridge and into the dark and frigid water below. How many could be saved, and how many would have to perish for this evening to be remembered as Boston’s greatest moment of tragedy for a generation?




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The Trolley of Death




• 100 year Globe retrospective (https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/201...) by Eric Moskowitz


• Globe coverage (paywalled)



• Nov 8, 1916 (https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/im...) Initial report


• Nov 9, 1916 (https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/im...) Recovering and identifying the dead


• Nov 10, 1916 (https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/im...) Searching for the body of Miss Elsie Wood


• Nov 11, 1916 (https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/im...) Funerals


• Nov 12, 1916 (https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/im...) Grand jury will decide if charges are warranted


• Nov 17, 1916 (https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/im...) Mayor Curley’s committee to safeguard drawbridges


• May 24, 1917 (https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/im...) Elsie H Woods’ body recovered


• July 1, 1911 (https://bostonglobe.newspapers.com/im...) Trolley nearly plunges into the Mother Brook





• Other news coverage



• Nov 7, 1916 (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...) AP report declaring 30 dead


• Nov 8, 1916 (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...) UPI report on Walsh’s arrest


• Nov 18, 1916 (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...) Mississippi paper makes a tasteless joke


• Nov 7, 1916 (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...) Wire service story with Shea disputing Walsh’s account


• Nov 8, 1916 (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...) Wire service story, includs Shea’s account disputing Walsh’s claims





• Nov 11, 1916 Electric Railway Journal article (https://archive.org/details/electricr...)


• Public Service Commission report (https://books.google.com/books?id=gf0...)


• 1918 annual report (https://books.google.com/books?id=t1d...) of the Public Service Commission


• Current drawbridge laws (https://malegislature.gov/Laws/Genera...) (sections 120-129)




Hoisting car 393 out of the water (https://i0.wp.com/www.hubhistory.com/...)



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Hoisting car 393 out of the water (https://collections.countway.harvard....)


1916 BERy system map (https://i0.wp.com/www.hubhistory.com/...)



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1916 BERy system map (https://archive.org/details/1916-syst...)


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Arrow showing where car 393 went in


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