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The air in Boston’s North End on January 15, 1919, was unusually warm for January, a balmy 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Beneath the elevated tracks of the Boston Elevated Railway, near the waterfront, a colossal metal tank stood, holding an estimated 2.3 million gallons of molasses. It was a familiar sight, a behemoth of industry that … Read more
The air in Boston’s North End on January 15, 1919, was unusually warm for a January day. A sense of anticipation buzzed through the neighborhood, a mixture of relief that the day’s work was nearing its end and the quiet hum of everyday life. But this particular afternoon was to be etched into the city’s … Read more
The air in Boston’s North End on January 15, 1919, was unseasonably warm for January. A strange, sweet scent hung heavy, a prelude to a disaster that would engulf the neighborhood in a wave of sticky, brown death. It was an ordinary Tuesday, and the Purity Distilling Company’s colossal molasses tank, an imposing 50-foot-tall cylinder … Read more
The air in Boston’s North End on January 15, 1919, was thick with the usual winter chill, but beneath the surface of normalcy, a disaster was brewing. It wasn’t the rumble of impending war, nor the whisper of a new plague, but something far more insidious and sticky: a colossal tank of molasses, poised to … Read more
In the heart of Boston, on a sweltering January day in 1919, a disaster of unimaginable viscosity unfolded. It wasn’t a fire, nor a bomb, but something far stranger and more insidious: a tsunami of molasses. It was a crisp winter afternoon, January 15, 1919, and Boston was abuzz. The Great War had recently ended, … Read more
The year is 1919. Boston, a city steeped in history and the aroma of industry, was about to be forever marked by a disaster as bizarre as it was brutal. It wasn’t fire or flood in the traditional sense, but a tidal wave of a different kind – a monstrous surge of molasses that swept … Read more
The air in Boston on January 15, 1919, was unseasonably warm for a January day. Citizens bustled through the North End, a vibrant immigrant neighborhood, unaware that a slow-moving catastrophe was about to engulf them. The cause? Not a bomb, not a fire, but something far more bizarre and deadly: a colossal wave of molasses. … Read more
The air in Boston’s North End on January 15, 1919, was crisp and cold, the kind of winter day that nips at your ears and promises a clear, sharp evening. Yet, something far more ominous was brewing beneath the surface, quite literally. A colossal, improperly constructed storage tank, looming over Commercial Street like a slumbering … Read more
The winter air in Boston on January 15, 1919, was deceptively mild. Children were returning from school, workers were heading home, and the city buzzed with the usual post-war energy. Few could have imagined that within hours, a sweet, sticky tide would engulf a neighborhood, leaving a trail of devastation and a lingering, syrupy scent. … Read more