A colossal winter storm began enveloping the Atlantic coast of the United States on this day in 1888. It was the beginning of one of the most destructive blizzards in U.S. history, hitting communities from as far south as the Chesapeake Bay to the easternmost provinces of Canada. Across the country, the storm killed hundreds of people and caused property damage at a massive scale.
The snow fell for a day and a half, coating parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts with as much as 50 inches. Parts of New York and New Jersey got up to 40 inches. Severe winds cut through towns at up to 80 miles per hour. Rail and road transport was cut off across several states, and telegraph wires between major cities like Washington, D.C., Boston, and Montreal were severed.
The storm, now dubbed the Great Blizzard of 1888, took many lives. Properties burned as firefighters got stuck in the snow drifts and at least a hundred people onboard ships were killed due to crashes and groundings. 200 died in New York City, most of whom had been buried in snowdrifts on the streets. Many others died elsewhere while trying to walk to towns after their trains had been derailed in the snow.
The jamming up of transit and the severing of so many telegraph wires were part of the inspiration for the construction of Boston and New York's underground subways and the placement of new telegraph and telephone wires underground.
For more on the Great Blizzard of 1888, check out this article from Weather Underground.
