rescuework

interesting...

Ah, rubbernecking... then as now.

It amazes me how much work they put into getting a shot in those days. Can't get enough of these old black and white shots of history.

This would have made an amazing stereoview!

really nice and exciting !

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.

"Recovered train on ship in Hudson River" -- "Garrison, NY railroad wreck" -- New York Public Library Digital Gallery