On November 1, 1918, as the Great War in Europe was entering its final
hours, a five-car elevated train was heading for the Flatbush section of
Brooklyn with hundreds of homeward-bound commuters aboard. As the train
rumbled down a shor hill between Prospect Park and Ebbets Field in the
very heart of Brooklyn, the unthinkable happened: the motorman lost
control and the train left the tracks as it curved into a tunnel at the
foot of the hill. The ensuing disaster, known ever since as the Malbone
Street Wreck, took the lives of almost a hundred people and stands as
the worst mass-transit accident in U.S. History.
Unlike the Titanic disaster, however, the Malbone Street Wreck has
received scant attention from scholars and historians over the years. As
is so often the case, popular accounts of the tragedy have managed to
enshrine as dogma thinkgs that are absolutely untrue.
Now, Fordham University Press is proud to present Brian J. Cudahy's
long-awaited account of the Malbone Street Wreck, a book that recounts
the events leading up to the disaster, describes the faithful trip from
its beginning to end, and reviews efforts conducted after the tragedy to
fix blame and establish liability.
Could the Malbone Stret Wreck have been avoided? Clearly yes, is
Cudahy's answer. Had any number of factors not combined in precisely the
way that they did, the five-car train might have well continued its
journey to Brighton Beach in a completely uneventful manner.
But they did happen exactly as they happened, and that is why The
Malbone Street Wreck makes such arresting reading. Could another Malbone
Street Wreck happen at some future time in New York, or on any other
U.S. Mass Transit System? Transit professionals will have to answer this
question after they read Cudahy's account of how and why November 1,
1918 has become such an important day in transportation history.
