Historical Note

[mabfan]

On this date in 1945, fifty-nine 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."

Let us hope such events can stay in the past.

Comments

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

That crash has fascinated me ever since I saw an account of one of the survivors, a woman who was trapped in the elevator of the Empire State Building (on her birthday!) as it plummeted into and then through the basement. Thanks for keeping it alive.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Where did you come across this account? I would love to see a book about the incident.

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

I think it was a special on A&E a bunch of years ago, when the channel was new.