March 12, 1888: The Blizzard of 1888

Note all the snow-covered above-ground power lines,

not something seen in modern American cities.

March 12, 1888: The Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great White Hurricane, paralyzes the Northeastern U.S., from Chesapeake Bay to Maine.

Places in Massachusetts and Connecticut got up to 50 inches of snow -- over 4 feet. New York City (then just Manhattan and part of The Bronx) got 22 inches, which would be a City record until 1947.

Over 400 fatalities were attributed to the storm, among them Roscoe Conkling, the legendarily corrupt U.S. Senator from New York, from pneumonia. Fire stations were immobilized, and, despite temperatures nearly dropping below zero, fire damage alone was estimated at $25 million (about $720 million in 2022 money).

Transportation was hopeless. Horses couldn't get through the snow to draw carriages, and railroads couldn't operate. The City was at a standstill. It took the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad -- including what's now the New Haven Line of the Metro-North Commuter Railroad -- 8 days to start operating again.

Just as a freezing-over of the East River led to the desire to build the Brooklyn Bridge, so too did the Blizzard of '88 lead to the Northeast beginning to build underground railway systems. Boston opened the Western Hemisphere's 1st subway line in 1897, New York followed in 1904, and Philadelphia in 1907. Telegraph and telephone lines were also brought down, and this led to cities putting those underground as well.

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March 12, 1888 was a Monday. Baseball season had yet to begin. Football was out of season. Hockey was still all-amateur. And basketball hadn't yet been invented. So, regardless of the weather, there were not going to be any scores on this historic day.