railroadaccidents

i almost missed how incredible this is

I think there is little doubt that this train wreck took place in Garrison, NY, on October 24, 1897 -- not Harrison, New York.

"A horrible train wreck occurred at Garrison on the Great Hudson River Railway on October 24, 1897, killing 20 people." -- Wikipedia

The New York Public Library Digital Gallery also maintains a collection of William M. Van der Weyde's photographs of this train wreck. Their collection identifies each photograph, twice, as "Garrison, New York" (includes identification taken from mountings).

This photograph, above, is identified as, "Overturned train car with broken windows" -- New York Public Library Digital Gallery
Printed on mounting: "Garrison, NY railroad wreck"

Garrison, New York, is located directly across the Hudson River from the United States Military Academy at West Point. A couple of contemporary photographs, below, depict railroad trains passing through Garrison. This may allow you to see how similar the river bank landscape is in the train-wreck photographs to that of the Hudson River Valley.

Harrison, New York, on the other hand,is a small land-locked community in Westchester County (and the only community close to Long Island Sound without access to the water).

"A Metro-North train heads north on Constitution Island, across the river from West Point and just north of Garrison, New York" by Steve Ostrowski



"Garrison, NY Train Station" by Daniel Case


Of course, there's only one letter difference between these two locations.

I live in Harrison, NY, and this does not look like Harrison to me. I believe judging from the scenery of the Hudson River and the Highlands that this could be GARRISON, NY.

wow

Otto beat me to it!

I told them about the error four months ago and they still haven't changed it.

I found a record of a wreck that happened outside of Bridgeport Connecticut in 1911 which is just 30 miles or so from Harrison NY, I think that might be it.

Wow...excellent shot.. Enrique

Should be Great Northern in the photo title :)

Thanks for catching that Gene.

I've confirmed this as the Index-Galena Lumber Co #2, a 3-truck Climax (Class C) that rolled over on the logging railroad near Index, WA in 1926.

It's definitely NOT on Great Northern RR tracks!