On January 15, 1919, around 12:30 in the early afternoon a giant storage tank burst, releasing a wave of molasses upon the city of Boston. While it sounds like a question you might be asked as a joke - “would you rather be inundated with a wave of fresh milk or sweet molasses?” - it was a very serious accident and ultimately had a tragic end for many Bostonians.
It began with a low rumble and a series of quick pops. As the rivets shot loose of the tank, the seam gave way to more than two million gallons of thick brown molasses. It formed a wave that some measured as high as fifty feet and tore through the city streets at nearly forty miles per hour. Houses were knocked off their foundations and crushed. Workers who had been enjoying their lunches a block away were drowned in the thick goo. Carts overturned and their horses were helplessly caught up and carried away. The thick steel bars that supported the elevated train were ripped from the ground and washed away. As the deluge calmed and stopped its rush forward, streets were left covered in several feet of thick molasses and the debris of a ruined neighborhood.
Rescue workers rushed to aid those caught up in the flood, but it was largely fruitless. It was exceedingly difficult to even walk in the feet-thick muck, let alone get a cart through it. When they did reach those unfortunate souls who had been swept up in the wave, they were almost frozen in place by the sticky mess and were beyond the grasp of medical care. Some were not drowned, but instead crushed, like the woman who was sitting in her home when the walls were forced in and reduced to a pile of rubble. The search for victims and survivors continued for days, and the casualties amounted to twenty-one dead and over one hundred and fifty wounded.
Once the search for survivors concluded, the search for answers began in earnest. It was determined that the tank, which had been built just four years prior to the accident, was structurally weak and improperly tested. The designers had never even filled it to capacity with water to ensure it was strong enough to hold a full load. It was even noted that the tank was painted brown to mask the regular bits of molasses that leaked through its holes and seams. On the day of the flood, the temperature had dramatically risen nearly forty degrees, no doubt increasing pressure inside the tank that had been recently filled to the brim. In a civil class-action suit, the owner of the tank was found liable for the accident and paid out settlements to the survivors and the families of the dead. Some maintain that even now you can still smell a hint of molasses on the wind on a hot day in Boston’s North End.