A RIVER RUNS PUTRID: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sought in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that baked the metropolis. An even more repellent force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial effluents had transformed London's lifeblood into a nauseating odor. The stench was all-consuming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and pe

On a blustery January in the year, disaster struck Boston. A massive tank filled with sticky, sweet molasses gave way sending a wall of of the thick liquid flowing through the streets. The impact was catastrophic, flattening buildings and burying citizens in a sticky soup. Dozens of people were lost their lives, and many more were wounded. The ci