This Day in History, 1945: Empire State Building Crash
On this date in 1945, sixty-one years ago, as World War II was coming to an end, an American B-25 bomber got lost in the fog above New York City. At 9:49 AM it crashed into the Empire State Building, damaging the 78th and 79th floors. Although it was a Saturday morning, there were people working in the building. Fourteen people were killed and twenty-six sustained injuries.
By the next week, the building was repaired and the floors were usable again.
It was this incident that prompted E.B. White in his now much more famous essay "Here is New York" to note the following:
"The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions."
Last year on this date, I happened to be in New York City. Since it was the 60th anniversary of the event, and since 9/11 was still fresh in everyone's minds, I thought that some memorial service might have been planned. But when I called the Director of Public Relations at the Empire State Building, she told me that there was no event planned to commemorate the event or to memorialize the victims. Why? Because in 2000, for the 55th anniversary, they did have a memorial, but no one came, not even the press.
So let my annual post serve as a small memorial to those who died in the crash. For those of you interested in the full story, try to find Arthur Weingarten's book about the event, "The Sky is Falling." It's out of print, but available in libraries.
By the next week, the building was repaired and the floors were usable again.
It was this incident that prompted E.B. White in his now much more famous essay "Here is New York" to note the following:
"The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions."
Last year on this date, I happened to be in New York City. Since it was the 60th anniversary of the event, and since 9/11 was still fresh in everyone's minds, I thought that some memorial service might have been planned. But when I called the Director of Public Relations at the Empire State Building, she told me that there was no event planned to commemorate the event or to memorialize the victims. Why? Because in 2000, for the 55th anniversary, they did have a memorial, but no one came, not even the press.
So let my annual post serve as a small memorial to those who died in the crash. For those of you interested in the full story, try to find Arthur Weingarten's book about the event, "The Sky is Falling." It's out of print, but available in libraries.
I'll have to take a look around for The Sky is Falling. I love this kind of history....