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A
horrific explosion occurred on the old elevated platform at North Station in
June 1959. One person
was killed. The origin of the blast was never determined, and one can
infer it was possibly a criminal or terrorist act. The following is a
description of the event from the MTA Annual Report of 1959 [predecessor of
the MBTA]:
"Shortly after two o'clock June 11, the MTA was placed in an ear-shattering,
explosive crucible.
It was the kind of test the Authority hoped never to meet. Yet it met
head-on a tragedy of staggering dimensions and emerged in stature and
prestige.
The overhead platform at the North Station blew apart, severing a vital link
in the system's main line from Forest Hills to Everett.
At first, no one seemed to know what had happened. Rumors sped
throughout the city. Someone said a bomb exploded. Another said
the electrical system failed in a flaming blast. Others said a gas line ignited. Others turned loose their imagination.
The MTA knew one thing for sure. A tragedy had struck. People
were hurt. It appeared that one or more might die. The MTA went
to work. One of its lifelines was twisted out of operation, and
hundreds of thousands of commuters immediately looked to the MTA for other
means of transportation.
At the North Station site, the MTA reorganized schedules of its buses and
street cars to provide service over a network of alternate routes to care
for the many riders who must, explosion or no explosion, move now.
All the Trustees, Anthony D. Pompeo, Chairman, William V. Ward and John J.
Graham, were at the scene to take personal charge of 'Operation Restoration.' Telephone lines from the explosion site to MTA headquarters were out, but an emergency method of communication was set
up and the gigantic task of restoration got under way. Red tape was cut. Men and equipment were mobilized and sped to the scene.
Meanwhile, scores of citizens, members of the clergy,
servicemen, police, firemen, Red Cross workers, ambulance workers, hospital
personnel, state, county, and city agencies, and others too numerous to list
in this account, formed a small army of rescue workers.
The shocked and injured men and women trapped in the
debris were carried on stretchers to nearby hospitals. Quick thinking
citizens performed first aid at the scene. An entire city seemed to respond
in unison.
Eventually, the last of the injured was removed. Thousands of curious
dispersed. The excitement ebbed. As dusk stretched across the
North Station, the MTA was left alone?alone amid a
Gargantuan transportation task.
Colonel Erme B. Myott, Chief Engineer of the Authority, and
hundreds of MTA workers, many of whom were off duty at the time, arrived
voluntarily at the scene, and began the night long task of getting the North
Station link back in operation. Meanwhile, over a local television channel,
Edward Dana [MTA General Manager], his faith in his men unbounded, pulled a
prediction out of the debris. He said that normal service would be resumed
in the morning. Except for his men, few believed that a miracle could be
wrought.
By 5:31 a.m., the following morning (fifteen hours
after the explosion), and after safety tests had been made,
the first train moved over the structure. Metropolitan Boston was back
in business.
Apart from the personal
loss and suffering involved, one indisputable fact emerged
from the wreckage. The MTA accomplished one fine job.
Approximately thirty-eight persons, some of them MTA
personnel, were injured in the blast, three critically. Only one person
died. MTA Inspector John T. Brown, 41, was fatally injured
while doing his job.
It was
determined that the cause of the explosion was in no way
connected to MTA operations."
The rapid transit Elevated platform at North Station (with
ramp to Boston Garden) was later demolished and replaced in 1975 with a new
underground station. The Green Line "El" platform for streetcars at North
Station was demolished in 2004.
North Station Looking South On Platform
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