This Day in History, 1945: Empire State Building Crash

On this date in 1945, sixty years ago, as World War II was coming to an end, an American B-25 bomber got lost in the fog above New York City. At 9:49 AM it crashed into the Empire State Building, damaging the 78th and 79th floors. Although it was a Saturday morning, there were people working in the building. Fourteen people were killed and twenty-six sustained injuries.

By the next week, the building was repaired and the floors were usable again.

It was this incident that prompted E.B. White in his now much more famous essay "Here is New York" to note the following:

"The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions."

(In memoriam.)

Forgetting History

I just spoke with Lydia Ruth, the Director of Public Relations at the Empire State Building, who graciously returned a phone call to me asking about the 60th anniversary of the B-25 bomber crash. Ms. Ruth told me that there was no event planned to commemorate the event or to memorialize the victims. Sadly, the reason is because there's not much interest in the tragedy anymore. Five years ago, for the 55th anniversary, they did have a memorial, but no one came, not even the press.

Ms. Ruth also told me that I'm the youngest person ever to ask about a memorial for the event. Most of the people who call her about it are much older, and were actual witnesses to the crash.

I think that's rather a shame. I know that as time passes, historical events get forgotten, as even the immediate families and friends of the victims pass on. But in today's post-9/11 world, I thought that this city might have finally chosen to begin looking back at its past, to learn from what had happened before in order to deal with what's happening today. But as I read the local papers this morning and scanned the local television news, not a single reference to the anniversary could I find.

(For those interested in irony, Ms. Ruth returned my call just before 10 AM -- the same time when the plane hit the building, sixty years ago today.)

Perhaps I can do something to remind people of the event, like I did to remind people of the General Slocum tragedy with Time Ablaze. Maybe in five years there'll be enough interest for a milestone commemoration.