Friday, March 13, 2009

Johnstown, Pennsylvania: Johnstown National Flood Memorial


Here's where the Johnstown Flood started. This used to be South Fork Dam, built to create a man-made lake for the magnates of Pennsylvania behind it. It was quite nice until the dam gave way in 1889, sending water down toward Johnstown about 13 miles away. The amount of water was equal to what passes over Niagara Falls in 35 minutes, so you can imagine how much destruction it caused.

If you read David McCullough's book on the Johnstown Flood, you'll want to see for yourself what it looks like.

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