The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 — The Sinister Past
Boston, January 15, 1919. A poorly built, rushed storage tank holding 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapses without warning, sending a wave up to 25 feet high through the streets of the North End at 35 miles per hour. Twenty-one people suffocate in the syrup. A firehouse is crushed. An elevated railway nearly comes down.
In this episode, we trace the disaster from the tank's rushed, sabotage-driven construction — built to beat Prohibition's deadline — through the flood itself, the remarkable rescue effort, and the six-year legal battle that made corporate negligence a matter of American…
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