"A genuine March day commenced"

In a year in which a winter storm known as the "Schoolhouse" or "Children's 暴雪" had already claimed the lives of 235 people and thousands of cattle and other livestock in the Plains States, perhaps the residents of the Eastern seaboard could have been forgiven for thinking that winter was over when March dawned temperate, with crocuses already emerging. 信念(解脱)?) was soon to be shaken by a winter storm against which all subsequent storms would be measured. The "Great White 暴雪," as it is sometimes called, began on 11 March 1888 and raged for 72 hours, dumping up to forty inches of snow in New Jersey and 纽约 and as much as fifty inches in parts of 麻萨诸塞州 and Connecticut. Temperatures were in the single digits and the wind gusted to 80 miles per hour. Thanks to this driving wind, snow drifted as high as 30 to 40 feet.

First Hand Accounts of the Storm

The weather was a source of almost universal comment for diarists. The 麻萨诸塞州 Historical Society's collection includes hundreds of diaries kept by individuals from all walks of life, including four that give us an interesting picture of this storm from different locales. Reverend Andrew Oliver found himself in the path of the storm in Springfield, Otsego县, 纽约. His entry for 12 March reads, "暴雪!! 一场大雪 & 整天狂风大作. 雪很深 & 漂移严重. No street cars running." The next day he records, "Still very cold & 多风的. 水星上7度. 0 at 7 … snow out front piled up i[n] t[he]street to a depth of 5 or 6 feet. 没有汽车在行驶 & no trains in or out of t[he] city. 散个小步. The streets present an extraordinary spectacle."

莱曼沃顿, a farmhand in Barre Plains, 麻萨诸塞州, had a much less romanticized view of all that snow, writing on the 14th and 15th, "14. 铲雪半天. Snow sticks to shovel and acts mean. Some big drifts 6 or 7 ft. 深的. 15. 铲雪. Road broke from Hamilton's to town. 铲土不收钱.在多尔切斯特, 麻萨诸塞州, where snow and rain had mixed, keeping the snowfall totals low, Henry Pierce recorded the news that "The storm of yesterday was very severe Heavy snows & R Roads blocked Telegraph wire down Said to have been the worst for eons."

Thomas Bradford Drew of Plymouth, 麻萨诸塞州, where the storm was merely a cold rain, recorded interesting stories despite being the least affected. 14日, 他写了, "A terrible snow storm raged in 纽约 and Western 麻萨诸塞州 day before yesterday, while we were having not much more than a cold rain storm. No communication has been recd, from 纽约 City to Boston excepting by Atlantic Cable by way of London England!!!" He goes on to record the misadventures in travel of two acquaintances:

Lillie Briggs and Rita Smith started from Boston for Florida on Monday the 12th By Boston & Albany RR and the cars were stuck in the snow about six miles this side of Springfield and there they had to remain two whole nights and did not reach that city until this P.M. It was a hard experience for them. … Saturday 17th We had a letter from Lillie and Rita who are now in Springfield waiting to go to 纽约 when the time comes to be sure of getting there. They said the nights on the snow bound train they were in were horrible.

“切断”

Although Boston was spared the brunt of the snowfall, the effects of the storm were no less daunting. Cities and towns up and down the east coast really were "cut off," as the headline in the 13 March issue of the Boston Globe trumpeted. The storm knocked out 电报ic and postal communications and trains could not get through the drifts. 旅行, 即使是短距离, was nearly impossible until brigades of snow shovelers and horse-drawn snow rollers had cleared the streets. Supplies of food ran short as trains sat at a standstill for a week or more. The storm did lead to many infrastructure improvements, including the burying of overhead utility lines in major cities and the creation of America's first subway in Boston, 麻萨诸塞州, which opened nine years later.