MAKE IT GO AWAY
If you live in much of the United States, you’ve spent much of this week moving snow. Sweeping it, blowing it, plowing it if you have the equipment…and of course, shoveling it.
In the 19th century, though, snow removal was a lot more basic.
Early snowplows were patented in the 1840s, and they were in wide use (with horse-drawn wagons) by the 1860s. The problem was, the snow still had to go somewhere once the plow pushed it off the road. Residents and merchants on side streets were much less than thrilled to discover that they were snowed under while the main drag was clear.
So they called in the shovel brigade. And that’s exactly what it was: crews of men who shoveled the drifts into carts or wagons, which were then dumped in whatever river or bay was available. Sometimes, in big cities, the shovel brigade followed the plows, cleaning up whatever was left as they went. It was brutal work, and not much different from the way people had been moving snow since the first humans realized they couldn’t just stay in the cave for the winter.
Worse, it didn’t make much sense in a city like New York, which was trying to move into the modern age, with all of the modern accoutrements, like – say – electricity and trains. The Blizzard of 1888 knocked out everything for days and convinced city leaders to make some major changes.
So how do you get around snow on the ground? You go under it – or over it.
New Yorkers did both.
They buried a lot of their power lines. It doesn’t prevent all outages, of course, but it’s a lot easier than going wire by wire through Manhattan. And it worked; many large cities have underground power lines to this day.
More, in parts of the City, you can still look up and see another relic from the 1888 storm: elevated train lines. Steam trains often had their own plows, but the blizzard was too much for them, leading the city to look for other ideas. Elevated lines were one.
Another would become an iconic fixture of the City: underground trains. The subway was still most of 20 years away, but 1888 was a good hard shove in that direction. Underground trains definitely worked: the one thing everyone knows in New York is that the subways ALWAYS run.
Then, as now, though, that did not mean everything was easy, normal or comfortable. The snow wagons and shovel brigades survived long into the 20th century. Even now, there’s not much to do with all of that snow but cart it away and leave it to melt somewhere. Dumping it in the water often isn’t an option any more because of the road salt and other chemicals.
So yes, people across the Northern Hemisphere have been fighting a wretched daily battle with snow this week (And what do we expect, really? It’s FEBRUARY!) But it could be a lot worse.
At least I’ll keep telling myself that as I pick up the shovel…again!
Got a Throwback Thursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
In the 19th century, though, snow removal was a lot more basic.
Early snowplows were patented in the 1840s, and they were in wide use (with horse-drawn wagons) by the 1860s. The problem was, the snow still had to go somewhere once the plow pushed it off the road. Residents and merchants on side streets were much less than thrilled to discover that they were snowed under while the main drag was clear.
So they called in the shovel brigade. And that’s exactly what it was: crews of men who shoveled the drifts into carts or wagons, which were then dumped in whatever river or bay was available. Sometimes, in big cities, the shovel brigade followed the plows, cleaning up whatever was left as they went. It was brutal work, and not much different from the way people had been moving snow since the first humans realized they couldn’t just stay in the cave for the winter.
Worse, it didn’t make much sense in a city like New York, which was trying to move into the modern age, with all of the modern accoutrements, like – say – electricity and trains. The Blizzard of 1888 knocked out everything for days and convinced city leaders to make some major changes.
So how do you get around snow on the ground? You go under it – or over it.
New Yorkers did both.
They buried a lot of their power lines. It doesn’t prevent all outages, of course, but it’s a lot easier than going wire by wire through Manhattan. And it worked; many large cities have underground power lines to this day.
More, in parts of the City, you can still look up and see another relic from the 1888 storm: elevated train lines. Steam trains often had their own plows, but the blizzard was too much for them, leading the city to look for other ideas. Elevated lines were one.
Another would become an iconic fixture of the City: underground trains. The subway was still most of 20 years away, but 1888 was a good hard shove in that direction. Underground trains definitely worked: the one thing everyone knows in New York is that the subways ALWAYS run.
Then, as now, though, that did not mean everything was easy, normal or comfortable. The snow wagons and shovel brigades survived long into the 20th century. Even now, there’s not much to do with all of that snow but cart it away and leave it to melt somewhere. Dumping it in the water often isn’t an option any more because of the road salt and other chemicals.
So yes, people across the Northern Hemisphere have been fighting a wretched daily battle with snow this week (And what do we expect, really? It’s FEBRUARY!) But it could be a lot worse.
At least I’ll keep telling myself that as I pick up the shovel…again!
Got a Throwback Thursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
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