"On Christmas Eve 1917, an overcrowded, out-of-control streetcar exited the Mount Washington tunnel, crashing into pedestrians. Twenty-three were killed and more than eighty injured in the worst transit incident in Pittsburgh history. The crash scene on Carson Street was chaotic as physicians turned the railway offices into a makeshift hospital and bystanders frantically sought to remove the injured and strewn bodies from the wreckage. Most of the victims, many women and children, were from the close-knit neighborhoods of Knoxville, Beltzhoover and Mount Oliver. In the aftermath, public outrage over the tragedy led to criminal prosecution, civil suits and the bankruptcy of the Pittsburgh Railways Company, which operated the service. Author Mary Jane Kuffner Hirt explores the tragic history of the Mount Washington transit tunnel disaster"--Back cover.

On Christmas Eve 1917, an overcrowded, out-of-control streetcar exited the Mount Washington tunnel, crashing into pedestrians. Twenty-three were killed and more than eighty injured in the worst transit incident in Pittsburgh history. The crash scene on Carson Street was chaotic as physicians turned the railway offices into a makeshift hospital and bystanders frantically sought to remove the injured and strewn bodies from the wreckage. Most of the victims, many women and children, were from the close-knit neighborhoods of Knoxville, Beltzhoover and Mount Oliver. In the aftermath, public outrage over the tragedy led to criminal prosecution, civil suits and the bankruptcy of the Pittsburgh Railways Company, which operated the service. Author Mary Jane Kuffner Hirt explores the tragic history of the Mount Washington transit tunnel disaster.

Avoid The Tourist Herds. What could be more uninspiring than seeing the identical attractions that everyone else has for decades? This Twisted Tour Guide escorts you to the places locals don’t want to talk about anymore…the same places people once couldn’t stop talking about. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure historical sites remain hidden awaiting rediscovery. Each visitation site in this guide is accompanied by a story. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. The photography from each profile showcases the precise location where each event occurred. The scenes can seem ordinary, weird and/or sometimes very revealing towards clarifying the background behind events. If you’re seeking an alternative to conventional tourism, this Twisted Tourist Guide is ideal. Each directory accommodates the restless traveler and even resident looking for something unique and different. Historic and Frequently Flawed Personalities: Andy Warhol, George Washington, Mayors Joseph Barker and Charles Kline, Composer Stephen Foster, Biddle Brothers and Mrs. Soffel, Harry Thaw, Evelyn Nesbit, Mary Schenley, Henry Clay Frick, H. J. and Howard Heinz, Actress Eleonora Duse, Prohibition Reformer William King, Joe The Ghost Pangallo, President Calvin Coolidge, Aviator Rose Collins, Father James Cox, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Dr. Jonas Salk, Mister Fred Rogers, Robert Duggan and the Mysterious Hat Bandit Architecture With A Distinctive Past: Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh Bridges, Union Railroad Station, Kaufman’s Department Store and Famed Clock, Lyndhurst Mansion, Pitt University’s Log Cabin, Union Trust Building, Heinz Lofts, Schenley Park Hotel, Hendel Building, Syria Mosque, Saint John’s Hospital, William Penn Hotel, Heinz Field, Crawford Grill, Stock Exchange, Langley Hall Explosion, Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Bellefield Tower and Iron City Brewery Hospitality and Hauntings Monongahela House Hotel, Pittsburgh Playhouse, Carnegie Library, Chatham College’s Woodland Hall and the Frick Mansion Legacies and Notorious Events Tarleton Bates’ Fatal Duel, Great Fire of 1845, Market Square Riot, Founding of the AFL Labor Organization, Fifth Avenue Fire, Cyclone of 1889, Armstrong-McKelvy Building Collapse, Lion Mauling at Luna Park, Spontaneous Human Combustion, Aetna Dynamite Explosion, Document Establishing Czechoslovakia, Donnelly Building Elevator Fall, Carnegie Ku Klux Klan Invasion, Sunday Blue Laws, Equitable Gas Company Explosion, Pittsburgh Jazz Heritage, Little Sisters of the Poor Fire, Winter Flooding of Point Park, Communist Scare, Commuter Bandit, Kennywood Pavilion Fire, Lottery Scandal, Purolator Heist, Todd Becker’s Dormitory Fall, Braun Baking Company and Town Talk Bread, Homeless Memorial and Operation Pork Chop Historical Scandals: Whiskey Rebellion, Labor Strikes and Accompanying Violence, Thaw-Seymour Marriage and Financiers Michael Carlow and Earl Belle Infamous Killings and Murder Architect Stanford White, Frontier Public Hangings, Dead Man’s Hollow, Suffocation By Folding Bed, Prohibition Gangster Leader Deaths of Luigi Lamendola, Stefano and Sam Monastero, Morris Curran, Giuseppe Siragusa and Jack Palmere, Rum Runner William Gregory, Lobianco Brothers Grocery Massacre, Volpe Brothers Contract Killing, Michael Chervenak, George Lee, Jimmy Goodnight, Spree Shooters Richard Baumhammers and George Sodini, Ricardo Tobia, Serial Killer Sidney Brinkley, Tree of Life Synagogue, Jim Rogers and Uber Driver Christina Spicuzza Transportation Calamities Mt. Washington Christmas Eve trolley crash, Graham Ferry Sinking, Bettis Airfield Balloon Disaster, Railroad Derailments, Island Queen Ship Detonation, Ghost Bomber and Air Disasters

Written in response to the Hawk's Nest Tunnel disaster of 1931 in Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, The Book of the Dead is an important part of West Virginia's cultural heritage and a powerful account of one of the worst industrial catastrophes in American history. The poems collected here investigate the roots of a tragedy that killed hundreds of workers, most of them African American. They are a rare engagement with the overlap between race and environment in Appalachia. Published for the first time alongside photographs by Nancy Naumburg, who accompanied Rukeyser to Gauley Bridge in 1936, this edition of The Book of the Dead includes an introduction by Catherine Venable Moore, whose writing on the topic has been anthologized in Best American Essays.

On a mountain somewhere above treeline, in some of the coldest and worst winter conditions imaginable, two men lie unconscious in the snow as explosive winds batter the nearby summits. In The Last Traverse: Tragedy and Resilience in the Winter Whites, Ty Gagne masterfully lays out the events that led up to an epic and legendary rescue attempt in severe and dangerous winter conditions in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. More than a cautionary tale, it is a tribute to all the volunteers and professionals who willingly put themselves in harm's way to save lives. This is a must read for anyone who hikes the Whites. "In his first book, Where You'll Find Me: Risk, Decisions, and the last Climb of Kate Matrosova, Ty Gagne established his credentials as a writer of well-researched and objective analysis of mountain accidents. Moreover, Where You'll Find Me reads like a novel, a book I couldn't put down. In his latest book, The Last Traverse, Gagne takes the combination of analysis and storytelling to a new level in a tale of survival and tragedy in the White Mountains." -Mark Synnott, author of The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the Climbing Life and The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest

The never-before-told story of one of the worst rail disasters in U.S. history in which two trains full of people, trapped high in the Cascade Mountains, are hit by a devastating avalanche In February 1910, a monstrous blizzard centered on Washington State hit the Northwest, breaking records. The world stopped—but nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved minute by minute: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned without escape, their railcars gradually being buried in the rising drifts. For days, an army of the Great Northern Railroad's most dedicated men—led by the line's legendarily courageous superintendent, James O'Neill—worked round-the-clock to rescue the trains. But the storm was unrelenting, and to the passenger's great anxiety, the railcars—their only shelter—were parked precariously on the edge of a steep ravine. As the days passed, food and coal supplies dwindled. Panic and rage set in as snow accumulated deeper and deeper on the cliffs overhanging the trains. Finally, just when escape seemed possible, the unthinkable occurred: the earth shifted and a colossal avalanche tumbled from the high pinnacles, sweeping the trains and their sleeping passengers over the steep slope and down the mountainside. Centered on the astonishing spectacle of our nation's deadliest avalanche, Gary Krist's The White Cascade is the masterfully told story of a supremely dramatic and never-before-documented American tragedy. An adventure saga filled with colorful and engaging history, this is epic narrative storytelling at its finest.

A folklorist chronicles the history and lore of witchcraft in the Keystone State from William Penn’s 17th century witch trial to 20th century occultism. As English and German settlers migrated to Pennsylvania, they brought their beliefs in magic with them from the Old World—sometimes with dangerous consequences. In 1802, for example, an Allegheny County judge helped an accused witch escape an angry mob. But Susan Mummey was not so fortunate. In 1934, she was killed in her home by a young Schuylkill County man who was convinced that she had cursed him. In other regions of the state, views on folk magic were more complex. While hex doctors were feared in the Pennsylvania German tradition, powwowers were and are revered for their abilities to heal, lift curses and find lost objects. In this revealing study, author Thomas White traces the undercurrent of witchcraft and occultism through centuries of Pennsylvania history.