1916 East River tunnel blowout

Construction accident in New York City thumb|The East River in 1916 On February 19, 1916 three sandhogs working on the New York Subway – Marshall Mabey, Michael McCarthy, and Frank Driver – were shot through 12 ft m of riverbed and up to 40 ft m into the air when a hole appeared in a compressed air tunnel they were working on under the East River. Background Thirty workers had been working on the construction of the New York Subway in a compressed air tunnel (24 psi kPa)1916-02-20 SHOT BY GEYSER FROM RIVER BED; Three Workers Spouted by Compressed Air Through 40 Feet of Sand and Water. JUGGLED IN HUGE FOUNTAIN Throngs on Brooklyn Bridge and Shore Fronts See 'Sandhogs' Catapulted Into Air. ONE VICTIM IS MISSING Another Swam to Safety with a Broken Leg, and a Third Dies of Exhaustion. SHOT BY GEYSER FROM RIVER BED https://www.nytimes.com/1916/02/20/archives/shot-by-geyser-from-river-bed-three-workers-spouted-by-compressed-a.html 2025-08-24 New York Times en under the East River, likely Montague Street.Frishberg Hannah 2016-05-11 Brooklyn Heights Subway Tunnel Cracks, Two Sandhogs Killed https://www.brownstoner.com/history/brooklyn-heights-subway-tunnel-construction-accident-1916/ 2025-08-18 Brown Stoner en-US Four workers – Marshall Mabey, Michael McCarthy, Frank Driver, and a man only known as Rottman – were working together removing shoring when they saw earth begin to fall from a hole above them. Driver attempted to plug the hole with a bag of sand, when he, Mabey, and McCarthy were sucked up through the hole, while Rottman managed to escape. The three men were shot up through the 18 in cm hole in the tunnel, and up through the East River.1916-02-21 TELLS HOW IT FEELS TO GO UP IN A GEYSER; Man Shot Through River Bed from Tunnel Was Never Squeezed So Tightly Before. KEPT HIS MOUTH TIGHT SHUT Body of Third Victim Found -- Damage to New Subway More Serious Than Was Thought. (Published 1916) https://www.nytimes.com/1916/02/21/archives/tells-how-it-feels-to-go-up-in-a-geyser-man-shot-through-river-bed.html 2025-08-18 New York Times en They shot through 12 ft m of riverbed and then into the air atop a geyser "four storeys high".Grann David 2003-08-18 City of Water https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/09/01/city-of-water 2025-08-24 The New Yorker en-US 0028-792X Some witnesses claim they went as high as 40 ft m.Walker James Blaine https://books.google.com/books?id=DMAGAwAAQBAJ Fifty years of rapid transit 1970 Arno Press 978-5-87094-231-5 en Mabey became unconscious during the event, saying "The last thing I remember seeing was the Brooklyn Bridge above me while I was whirling about in the air."Reis Ronald A. https://books.google.com/books?id=c7_kSMbmhV8C&dq=marshall+mabey&pg=PA45 The New York City Subway System 2009 Infobase Publishing 978-1-60413-046-1 en Workers thumb|Construction of the tunnel in 1909, seven years before the blowout McCarthy's body was recovered the next day by harbor police, 200 yd m from the scene. His body was taken to Brooklyn Morgue. He was believed to have hit his head and drowned.1940-10-06 SANDHOGS: Daredevils by Profession; DAREDEVIL SANDHOGS https://www.nytimes.com/1940/10/06/archives/sandhogs-daredevils-by-profession-daredevil-sandhogs.html 2025-08-24 New York Times en Driver, an African-American man who was a "miner's helper" hit his head of the bottom of a barge and died from his injuries soon after. He was given artificial respiration at Long Island College Hospital, but was unable to be resuscitated. Rottman, who managed to avoid being shot through the riverbed, was bruised and suffering from shock. Mabey was picked up by a boat, and then taken to Brooklyn City Hospital with a suspected broken leg and internal injuries, and stayed in the hospital for three days.Brooklyn Historical Society https://static.bklynlibrary.org/prod/public/documents/brooklyn-collection/connections/PS%20282%202019%20Young%20Scholars1.pdf The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Book 2019-06-14 Chapter 3: Marshall Mabey, the Sandhog Who Survived He returned to work within a few days.Barter Pavel 2015-08-28 The unknown story of the Irish who risked their lives to build the New York underground https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/irish-men-new-york-underground-2297522-Aug2015/ 2025-08-18 TheJournal.ie en He continued working as a sandhog for another 25 years.Fifield Adam 2003-01-12 The Underground Men https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/nyregion/the-underground-men.html 2025-08-24 New York Times en At the time of the incident, Mabey was 28 years old with a wife and four children.Griswold John 2023-05-17 Bridging the Gap https://commonreader.wustl.edu/bridging-the-gap/ 2025-08-24 Common Reader en-US By 1940, two of his children were also sandhogs. Tunnel damage Significant damage was done to the tunnel, and work on it was halted for a few days. The break in the tunnel was located by air bubbled appearing in the river above it. The tunnel was fixed by dumping large amounts of clay on top of the area the bubbles were coming out of. In popular culture The 1998 novel This Side of Brightness by Colum McCann was inspired by the event. Mabey appears in the 1975 novel Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow. In the novel, Harry Houdini visits Mabey in hospital to ask how he was unscathed, but is dragged out of the room by one of Mabey's sons. In 2023, the New York Transit Museum has had performances telling the story of Mabey's survival.2023-07-18 Family Performance: Marshall Mabey, Digging Under A River https://www.nytransitmuseum.org/program/marshall-mabey-aug5/ 2025-08-24 New York Transit Museum en-US The story of Mabey's survival was featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not! radio show in 1944.Ripley's Believe it or not script https://www.otrr.org/FILES/Scripts_pdf/Believe_It_Or_Not/44-03-07%20show%2037.pdf Old Time Radio Researchers See also Work in compressed air References Category:Accidental deaths in New York (state)