Traffic into the park backed up for more than seven miles. When families finally pulled in, kids nursing full bladders popped out of their cars and began urinating in the parking lot. A plumber’s strike meant that most of the drinking fountains weren’t working, a problem exacerbated by the one-hundred-degree heat. The temperature was melting the freshly poured asphalt and turning the pavement into quicksand. Counterfeiters had forged tickets, so almost 30,000 people, double the expected number, stuffed themselves into the park. Over capacity, the ferryboat ride nearly capsized. It was bedlam.
