![]() People couldn’t tell the difference between men, women, children or horses. The molasses was waist deep in the streets, and covered struggling forms trying to escape the sticky mass. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. Wreckage under the elevated where many express trucks parked before the molasses flood. While outside, the wall of goo trapped some unlucky victims, hurled some into the air, flung some against freight cars and smothered still others. Inside the Boston and Worcester freight terminal, the river of molasses poured through the doors and windows. He passed out, then opened his eyes to find three of his four sisters staring at him. He heard his mother call his name and couldn’t answer, his throat was so clogged with the smothering goo. Then he grounded and the molasses rolled him like a pebble as the wave diminished. According to a 1983 article in Smithsonian,Īnthony di Stasio, walking homeward with his sisters from the Michelangelo School, was picked up by the wave and carried, tumbling on its crest, almost as though he were surfing. The molasses surge picked up a truck and threw it into Boston Harbor.Ī small boy named Anthony di Stasio got caught in the molasses flood. It then tipped over a rail car and knocked buildings off their foundations. The deadly ooze damaged the Boston Elevated Railway on Atlantic Avenue. The ground shook, and witnesses said the rivets popping out of the tank sounded like machine gun fire. Shortly after noon, the tank collapsed with a thunderous roar. ![]() The tank, though only a few years old, seemed shaky. People who lived and worked in the North End said the tank shuddered and groaned when the company filled it. The tank, 50 feet high and 90 feet in diameter, contained 2.3 million gallons of molasses originally destined for use in a munitions plant. The Boston elevated twisted into new shapes after the molasses flood.
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