American railroad history is filled with accounts of misadventure. Steam boilers blew up. Bridges collapsed under the weight of heavy engines. Locomotives crashed head-on because of signal failures. Passenger cars derailed, often with dire results. Lightly built wooden coaches splintered on impact, and the debris often ignited from the coals...more
The waters of the Great Lakes are among the most treacherous in the world. Violent storms churn up waves and unpredictable currents capsize large vessels or cast them onto shoals and rocks where they are battered to pieces. An estimated 10,000 ships have fallen prey to the fury of the...more
This digital document is an article from American Scholar, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2007. The length of the article is 1373 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com...more