(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

The Johnstown Flood and Mayflower: A Story of Courage...


Johnstown is owner to gas, electricity, telephones, and other basic technology. The citizens trust the railroad and the iron company to care for their interests, which also include their safety. The people also hope that the rivers will perform the way they want them to during spring flooding. During this time, industry is doing a couple of things that will assure a heavy rainfall. One, they narrow the courses of the rivers, which will reduce their capacity. And two, they cut down forests for timber which will increase the runoff in the rivers. The dam, called the South Fork dam, has already broken several times. It was rebuilt last in 1880, when the new owners dismissed an inspectors' uncertainty about it threatening the whole valley. They exclude means for controlling the water height in an emergency, an act that saved the valley in an earlier breakage. In the hours preceding the disaster, telegraph service is knocked out by the weather, thinning or even eliminating any warning. The water began rushing through the valley, taking away all natural and manmade objects and throwing them at it as a wall of wreckage. After the flood, the rail beds, along with mostly everything are in ruins, but the Pennsylvania Railroad got the tracks back in order speedily, and began reconstructing.
             Throughout the story of the Mayflower, Philbrick focuses on the idea that the story of the Pilgrims does not really match what we believe to have happened. However, both sides still dealt with the process of peopling. The story does not just represent the good of America, or all the bad that the English unleashed on the Native Americans. Neither of these really explains everything that happened, and we commonly forget that both these groups were still human. Both were, at the same time, full of righteousness, greed, resentment, indecision, and a multitude of other differing behaviors. Both groups at this time in history were concerned solely with their own self-interest.


Essays Related to The Johnstown Flood and Mayflower: A Story of Courage...


Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question