Record Breaking Blizzard!

In March of 1888 New York City was slammed by one of the most devastating blizzards in recorded history.   From March 11th to 15th the city was buried underneath fifty inches of snow.

The Great White Hurricane, as it came to be known, disabled transportation and telegraph communication from the Chesapeake Bay to Montreal.  Huge, “modern” cites suddenly found themselves cut off from the rest of the world.

For the first time in history the New York Stock Exchange closed–and would remain so for two days as the storm raged on.

In New York City alone more than 200 perished in the extreme cold.  In the icy darkness of night fires raged as helpless volunteers watched from afar, their rescue teams trapped in the deep drifts that formed in the howling winds.

With surface transportation crippled many credit the Blizzard of 1888, or “The Blizzard,” as it was known for fifty years hence, with the creation of New York’s underground subway system.

http://myinwood.net/a-buried-city-the-blizzard-of-1888/