Rapid Transit

New York City is unique, especially in how it has been developed. Due to the Hudson River, the East River and the New York Harbor, the city had to expand north. The business district developed at the southern end of the island while residential areas were developed on the northern end. The difficulty in this became apparent with the question, How were the businessmen to get from their uptown homes to their work downtown?

Photo: nycurbed.com
 
Before the Subway system, New Yorkers traveled via horse cars, cable cars and elevated trains. An underground system was determined to be a preferable mode of transportation to reduce the number of people traveling on the streets. 

Photo: tenement.org 
 
October 27, 1904, the New York City Subway system opened and serviced about 100,000 people on its first day.  The Subway was preferable to elevated trains and cable cars because it was faster and was not subject to weather delays. 

Photo: constructioncompany.com

Almost as soon as the Subway opened, new lines and expansions of existing lines were proposed. Some ideas included competing with the current subway system, or being able to travel from either end of the island on one fare, as well as a loop system to New Jersey. 

Photo: thetransportpolic.com

When the subway system was developed it was built by two different companies, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. In 1940 these companies were combined under the city's Board of Transportation. While it is all one subway system, there are complexities and they are due to the original division between the companies: the IRT company numbered its lines while the BRT company lettered its lines.

Photo: dailymail.co.uk

Today, the New York City Subway is one of the largest underground rapid transit systems in the world with over 400 stations and 34 lines, and it is one of the world's oldest public transportation systems. Without it, a lot of New Yorkers, commuters and tourists would have a difficult time making their way around the city.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

Half a Leage

October 25, 1854, the British light cavalry brigade was sent to do battle with the Russians in the Crimean War. 

Photo: bbc.co.uk

The cavalry unit was sent to harass a retreating Russian artillery unit, however, orders were confused and the cavalry was sent towards a heavily armed Russian unit in a frontal assault instead. This resulted in heavy British casualties and the unit was forced to retreat. 

Photo: theguardian.com

Six weeks after the failed attack, the Light Brigade's actions were praised in Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Charge of the Light Brigade." It was a very popular poem that commended the soldiers on their bravery and even became a pamphlet that was distributed to the soldiers on the front lines. 

Photo: poets.org

The poem has been quoted and referenced in modern films to inspire people in the face of adversity. Rudyard Kipling also wrote a poem about the event but more to highlight how badly the British treated its own soldiers during the battle as well as afterwards. 

Photo: poetryfoundation.org

This Saturday marks the 160th anniversary of the charge of the Light Brigade. 

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made,
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

"Come on back, boys!"

In 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant was given command of the Union armies in the US Civil War. Knowing that the fastest way to force a surrender was through the use of total war, Grant placed Philip Sheridan in charge of the forces in the Shenandoah Valley in late 1864 and informed him that “If the war is to last another year, we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste.” The valley was the breadbasket of the South and General Robert E. Lee could not afford this threat, so he sent Jubal Early to protect the valley. 

Photo: americaslibrary.gov

On October 19, 1864 (150 years ago), Early attempted a surprise attack on Sheridan’s forces near Strasburg, Virginia to try and end the Union occupation of the Lower Valley. The surprise was successful: the Union forces were unaware of the Confederate plan until the forces arrived and Sheridan wasn’t even present at the time of attack. 

Photo: nps.gov

Sheridan was in Winchester, Virginia when the attack was launched, on a return trip from Washington, DC. He received reports of gunfire but believed it to be his own troops attacking Early. However, he left Winchester and rode towards the battle. Sheridan discovered that his troops were retreating and in order to halt this, he ordered Captain William McKinley to form a line to intercept stragglers and send them back to battle. When he arrived at the battlefield near Cedar Creek, Sheridan rallied his troops by shouting, “Give ‘em hell!” and the Union soldiers managed to defeat Early’s troops. 

Photo: exhibits.lib.byu.edu

The Battle of Cedar Creek was the last major conflict in the valley and effectively ended the Confederates’ campaign to control the Shenandoah Valley. In addition, the battle occurred just before the 1864 election and since it was a Union victory, it helped Lincoln to win reelection over his opponent George McClellan, who would have ended the war and allowed the Confederacy to remain as a separate country 

 Photo: nps.gov

Unusual Flooding

October 17, 1814, the streets of London were inundated with porter. People were not celebrating, they weren’t drinking and they were not happy. Instead, they were fleeing for their lives from a 15 foot wave of beer. 

Photo: viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk

At the Horse Shoe Brewery on Tottenham Court Road, a vat had broken and knocked over other others, resulting in about 9,000 barrels of beer flooding the streets of the nearby slum. Two houses were lost, as were seven lives. But many survived, despite their basements being flooded. At the time, no one reported rampant beer drinking instead, the crowd was quiet and calm, which allowed the people who were trapped to be heard. 

Photo: blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

The Horse Shoe Brewery was established in 1764 and primarily produced porter, especially for the area. Just before the flood, it had been bought by Sir Henry Meaux. After the incident, the brewery was brought to court because some believed the brewery could have prevented the accident but a jury cleared the brewery and stated that the flood had been an unavoidable act of God. The brewery continued production until 1921. Today, the nearby pub, the Holborn Whippet, brews ale each year to commemorate the London Beer Flood. 

Photo: www.altasobscura.com 

Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

Today is Columbus Day, a day to honor the man who "discovered" the New World. Of course, when he landed he thought he was in India. It's not that he thought the world was flat--from the time of the Ancient Greeks mariners, including Columbus, knew the Earth was a sphere--he simply was under the impression that the planet was smaller than it is and he was unaware of the existence of the continents in the Western Hemisphere. 

Photo: mrnussbaum.com

In 1937, Columbus Day became a federal holiday in the US but it had been celebrated for much longer. Italian-Americans have viewed the day as a way to celebrate Italian heritage and the first time it was celebrated as a legal holiday it was because of the efforts by Angelo Noco in Denver, and it became a statewide holiday in Colorado by 1907. 

Photo: claynewsnetwork.com

Four states do not observe Columbus Day but have their own versions. Hawaii celebrates Discovery Day, which commemorates when the Polynesians came upon Hawaii but is not an official state holiday. South Dakota observes Native American Day instead, which is a state holiday.  

Photo: ocw.mit.edu

Human Resiliency

Despite the fact that if they were caught they would be executed, prisoners of the Nazi's Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp attempted a revolt in the camp on October 7, 1944. 

Photo: en.auschwitz.org

The revolt was planned and led by the Sonderkommando, prisoners who had the special job of disposing of bodies from the crematoriums. Since they knew how the camp worked, they were kept apart from the rest of the prisoners, eventually executed because they were witnesses and their bodies were removed by the next generation of Sonderkommando. The rebellion took place on the 7th because they had received word that they were to be killed that day.

Photo: collections.yadvashem.org

Female prisoners in the munitions factory at the camp aided the Sonderkommando by gathering gunpowder and smuggling it to the men. The men used the secret stash of gunpowder to fashion hand grenades that they planned to use it to blow up the crematoriums to begin the revolt, thereby severely damaging the operations of the death camp.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

The revolt was begun in Crematorium 1, where a Nazi guard was  stuffed into the oven to be burned alive. Other crematoriums joined the revolt, with Crematorium 4 setting off the grenades and destroying themselves as well as the Crematorium for further use. Hundreds of others escaped.

Photo: sonderkommando.info
Image by David Olere, a former Sonderkommando and artist.

Despite the valiant effort, the Nazis took back control of the camp, captured the escapees and executed most of the participating Sonderkommando before torturing the others for information. The men gave up the names of the women who had smuggled them the gunpowder, resulting in the torture of the women until they were executed.

Photo: en.truthabout.camps.eu


The Sonderkommando were always destined to die, but in this case, the men of the crematoriums had the chance to make their deaths an inspiration to others. Though they were unsuccessful, the day of their revolt is remembered and commemorated and perhaps their actions helped some prisoners to hang onto life just a little bit longer because only three months later, January 26, 1945, the camp was liberated.

Photo: collections.yadvashem.org

Washington Crossing the Delaware

Washington Crossing the Delaware is a world famous painting by Emanuel Leutze, completed in 1851. It has been criticized because it is not 100% historically accurate; however, it was painted 75 years after the event took place, and according to a descendent of Leutze, it was an allegorical painting and an inspiration for the German Revolution. 

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

Emanuel Leutze was a German American who developed his artistic talent at the age of 14 when his father died. He sold paintings to support himself, but then in 1840, his talent was discovered and he attended Kunstakademie Düsseldorf to study art. 

Photo: artcyclopedia.com

While in Europe Leutze became a supporter of the Revolutions of 1848 and decided to craft a painting that would inspire his German countrymen. His idea was to use the American Revolution as an example, and he painted the scene of Washington and his troops crossing the Delaware River on December 25-26, 1776 in a surprise attack on the Hessian troops in Trenton. 

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

The original painting was completed in 1850 but a fire in his studio damaged it. Leutze painted a second, full-size copy and sent it to America where it changed ownership several times before being donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The first version was restored but during World War II it was destroyed in a bombing raid by the British Royal Air force. The running joke is that this was England's last retaliation for the the American Revolution.  

Photo: ww2db.com

A descendent of Leutze has argued that most of the historical inaccuracies were due to Leutze's effort to inspire the Germans: the boat is too small but it symbolizes the struggle by the Americans; Washington would not have been able to stand up, but his defiant stance symbolizes the hope of the Americans; and Leutze painted the crossing in the daytime when it took place at night, but a night painting would be difficult to achieve and ineffective in its aims. The major inaccuracy, which was accidental, was that Leutze painted the wrong flag, the Stars and Stripes, which did not exist at the time of Washington's crossing.

Photo: georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu
Grand Union Flag, the correct flag of the time of the crossing.

Thanks to Bill and Will Howard for their information on the painting. Both are descendents of Leutze. 

"With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion."

October 3, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe was seen in public for the last time before he died on October 7th. He was found wandering the streets of Baltimore in someone else's clothing and very delirious. It was unclear as to how he got there or why he was incoherant and he was never cognizant enough to talk before he died. 

Photo: poets.org
Born in 1809 in Boston to two actors, Poe was orphaned at an early age and was taken in by John Allan of Richmond, Virginia. Due to issues with money, Poe left the University of Virginia and enlisted in the US Army but failed as an officer at West Point. At this point, Poe turned to writing. 

Photo: eapoe.org, 
Cover page of a proposed literary journal that Poe planned to publish but never did.

When Poe attempted to make a living on writing alone, he was one of the few Americans to do so. At the time, there were no international copyright laws and publishers in America were more likely to pirate British pieces than to pay American authors. He was also hampered by the Panic of 1837, a financial crisis during which many periodicals failed and writers like Poe were not paid.

Photo: columbia.edu

In 1845, "The Raven" was published in The Evening Mirror and vaulted Poe to being a household name practically overnight. However, he was paid only nine dollars for the poem so his financial troubles continued.  When he was found wandering the streets of Baltimore, his wife had died and he had turned to drinking. The cause of death that was reported in the newspapers was "congestion of the brain," which meant he was an alcoholic. However, all medical records have disappeared. 

Photo: paulelder.org

To add further mystery to the man, for many years, starting in 1949, on January 19, Poe's birthday, an unknown visitor known as "Poe's Toaster" would place three roses on Poe's grave and toast him with cognac. The last appearance of Poe's Toaster was in 2009, the bicentennial of Poe's birth.

Photo: baltimoresun.com