A RIVER RUNS PUTRID: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sweltered 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 waste had transformed London's lifeblood into a foul-smelling mire. The stench was overwhelming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and i

On a blustery January in 1919, disaster struck Boston. A massive holding filled with sticky, sweet molasses gave way sending a torrent of the thick liquid flowing through the streets. The force was catastrophic, flattening buildings and entombing citizens in a gooey mire. Dozens of people were killed, and many more were wounded. The city faced a