Johnstown, Pennsylvania

On our way to Johnstown, PA, we stopped at the Flight 93 National Memorial Center.  This is the plane that went down in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, when the United States was attacked by terrorists.  It is a very moving memorial.

The Tower of Voices has not been completed yet.  It will be a 93-foot tall musical instrument marking the gateway to the living memorial site.  Forty chimes represent the voice of the 40 courageous passengers and crew members who took a vote to come together and fight terrorism on the morning of September 11, 2001. 

A concrete and glass visitor center is situated on a hill overlooking the crash site and a white marble Wall of Names.  The observation platform at the visitor center and the white marble wall are both aligned beneath the path of Flight 93.   On the land around the memorial park are 40 groves of trees, each planted with 40 trees, to represent the 40 heroic people who died on the crash in Somerset, Pennsylvania.

The aerial view shows a walkway approach you can take that widens as it nears a wall of names composed of 40 thick slabs of polished white granite.  Each slab represents the name of one of the 40 innocent people who were on the flight.

From a distance the monuments appear to be a solid wall to line the path to the crash site. 

The path to the final resting place of the plane is closed off with  a  gate and the rock marks where the plane hit the ground.  The flight impacted at 563 mph leaving a crater eight to ten feet deep and 30 to 50 feet wide.            

Of the four attacks on September 11th, this is the only one where authorities were able to find remains that pointed to who the attackers were including an identification card from one of them.   It allowed the United States to determine where the attackers came from and who was behind the attack.

The main building has a great deal of information about the flight.  When the terrorists started their attack on the cockpit, the pilot and co-pilot immediately took the plane off auto-pilot preventing the terrorists from changing the course to their intended target.  They also switched the voice controls so that the terrorists were heard from ground control although they thought they were speaking to the passengers in the cabin. You can hear the detailed conversations that occurred. There are also recordings of the passengers talking to their loved ones during the ordeal. Along with the displays there are several large screens that play the national news on that day showing and discussing the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.  It is a very eerie experience.  

The memorial is a very solemn place representing the 40 brave souls who prevented this plane from reaching its intentional target and taking many more lives.  

Several days later we continued our trip to Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  I wanted to go there because of the history of the Johnstown Flood that happened in 1889, and also because my father was born and raised in Johnstown.   

The Johnstown Flood occurred in 1889, when an earth and rock dam failed during a record rainfall.  The flood was one of the worst civil disasters in the U.S. causing the death of over 2,200 people and virtually destroying the town. 

Johnstown, Pennsylvania today

Johnstown was founded in 1800 where the Stony Creek and Little Conemaugh rivers joined to form the Conemaugh River.  With the building of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal and the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Cambria Iron Works, the city  had a bustling population of 30,000 by 1889 and was known for its steel.  The Cambria Iron Works employed over 7,000 workers, most of whom lived in company-owned tenements, shopped at the company store, and when sick or injured went to the company hospital.

High above the city, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania built the South Fork Dam between 1838 and 1853 as part of a cross-state canal system.  The canal was supplied with water by Lake Conemaugh, the reservoir behind the dam.  Soon after railroads superseded canal barge transport and the Commonwealth abandoned the canal and sold it to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The dam and lake were part of the purchase and the railroad sold them to private interests.

In 1881, Henry Clay Frick, with a group of investors from Pittsburgh, purchased the abandoned reservoir, modified it, and converted it into a private resort lake for their wealthy associates. The lake was two miles long, one mile wide and 60 feet deep near the dam.  

The members built cottages and a clubhouse to create the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an exclusive and private mountain retreat to include more than 50 wealthy Pittsburgh steel, coal, and railroad industrialists.  Members included Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie, and Andrew Mellon. 

From 1881-1889 the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club owned the lake.  On one side they built a 47 room clubhouse and 16 elegant cottages.  Club members took to the water in row boats and sailing canoes, as well as two fine steam yachts.  The lake was stocked with bass and trout. 

Development included lowering the dam to make its top wide enough to hold a road, and putting in a fish screen in the spillway to keep the fish from leaving the lake.  By 1889, the water control tower had burned down.  Five large outlet pipes, a feature of the original dam and previously sold off, had not been replaced. And  earlier breaches in the dam had been improperly filled with stones, brush, and even manure.  The dam had settled and sagged at the center.

On May 28, 1889, a low-pressure area formed over Nebraska and  Kansas. By the time this weather pattern reached western Pennsylvania two days later, it had developed into what would be termed the heaviest rainfall event that had ever been recorded in that part of the United States. The heavy rains also disrupted communication lines so most people below the dam were not notified. 

At 2:50 p.m. the South Fork Dam breached and 3.84 billion gallons of water headed for Johnstown.  They estimate it took less than 65 minutes for the lake to empty after the dam started to fail.  Several towns along the way were hit by the flood waters but many people escaped. Continuing on its way downstream to Johnstown, the water picked up debris, such as trees, houses, and animals and several other small towns were swept away.

Some 57 minutes after the South Fork Dam collapsed, the flood hit Johnstown. The residents were caught by surprise as the wall of water and debris bore down, traveling at 40 miles per hour reaching a height of 60 feet in places. Some people, realizing the danger, tried to escape by running towards high ground but most people were hit by the surging floodwater.

In Johnstown, the Stone Bridge carried railroad cars across the Conemaugh River. The debris carried by the flood formed a temporary dam at the bridge, resulting in a flood surge that rolled  upstream into the Stoney Creek River. Gravity caused the surge to return to the temporary dam, causing a second wave to hit the city, but from a different direction.  People who had been washed downstream became trapped in an inferno as the debris piling up against the bridge caught fire. The fire at the Stone Bridge burned for three days. After flood waters receded, the pile of debris at the bridge covered 30 acres and reached 70 feet tall.

The Stone Bridge where many people were trapped and died.

According to records compiled by The Johnstown Area Heritage Association, bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati, and as late as 1911; 99 entire families died in the flood, including 396 children; 124 women and 198 men were widowed; 98 children were orphaned; and one third of the dead, 777 people, were never identified; their remains were buried in the "Plot of the Unknown" in Grandview Cemetery in Westmont.

The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was disbanded and no members or their families every returned to the area.  In the  years following the disaster, some people blamed the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club for their modifications to the dam and failure to maintain it properly. The club was successfully defended and was never held legally responsible for the disaster. It was argued that the dam's failure was a natural disaster which was an act of God, and no legal compensation was paid to the survivors of the flood.  

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers Report, dated June 1891, the changes made by the club had no real effect to the dam's ability to contain the waters of Lake Conemaugh during such a storm.  

In May 1988, almost 100 years later, a Civil Engineering Report stated that if reconstruction of the South Fork Dam had been rebuilt to the original specifications and construction, the disaster of May, 31,1889, would never have occurred. 

The small RV park we stayed at is actually situated on the floor of the Conemaugh Lake.  And the town we drove through to get to our RV park sits on the banks of where the Conemaugh Lake used to be.  The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club building is there and being refurbished along with several of the 'cottages' the wealthy lived in while at the lake. 

The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club

Johnstown today is a struggling town that is slowly coming back.  The steel mills and factories have all closed but new industry is starting to bring growth to the town.  There were several other floods that hit the city after the one in 1889. They weren't as devastating but still took many lives.  

 In Johnstown there is an incline you can ride that gives you a bird's eye view of the city today.  The incline was built as a direct result of the flood.  The incline was opened in 1891 to provide direct access to the city from higher towns.  Two later floods in 1936 and 1977 damaged Johnstown and the incline saved countless lives. 

The closed steel mills are still present today and sitting empty.  To the left is a section of the river that is enclosed in a viaduct.

The Stone Bridge where so many people died in the Johnstown Flood is still standing and in use today.

On our trip driving to Johnstown we met two different couples who were from the city and I mentioned we were going there to see my dad's old house.  Both couples asked where it was and when I gave them the address they cautioned us to be very careful because they said that part of town was dangerous.   

We no longer have relatives who live there and the area has become poor and rundown but I remember wonderful times growing up and visiting relatives who still lived in the house. Sadly, times have changed and the house and neighborhood is old and deteriorated but I guess that is to be expected in many older cities.  But it was still nice to be able to go back and see the home my dad was born and raised in. Peace!