Ferris Wheel Disaster in the Bronx

One hundred years ago today…. A thunderstorm wreaked havoc throughout NYC, including blowing over a Ferris Wheel in Clason Point, the Bronx, resulting in seven deaths. 

One arrest has been made and a sweeping investigation is under way to-day to determine responsibility for the collapse of the 100-foot Ferris wheel at Clason Point Park, Clason Point, Bronx, killing seven persons and injuring more than thirty-five, some mortally, in last night's storm.

Clason Point Park is a privately owned amusement enterprise, Assistant District Attorney Quigley, coperating with Bronx Superintendent of Buildings Patrick J. Reville, is conducting the investigation.

Mr. Reville said that the operator of the wheel should have ordered his passengers out when he saw the storm approaching. An order has been issued for a rigid examination of all slides, wheels and other motion amusement devices in parks in the Bronx.

The wind appeared to lift the upper half of the wheel and toss it with its merrymakers into Long Island Sound. The collapse of the lower half followed, burying those in it under the wreckage. Policemen, firemen and volunteers worked halt an hour before the victims were removed, many unconscious. There were about eighty passengers in the cars of the wheel, including in some instances, whole families.

– “Big Ferris Wheel Tirn Apart Ny Storm, Hurled into Sound; Seven Victims Dead, 35 Injured.” Evening World, 12 June 1922, p. 11.

Clason Point Amusement Park was Privately owned. Untapped Cities describes it:

From the late 1880s to around 1935, the neighborhood was a major tourist attraction and home to a massive amusement district, complete with arcades, dancehalls, waterfront resorts, and a massive outdoor saltwater swimming pool known as “The Inkwell” due to its dirty, unfiltered water that came straight from the East River. There were ferryboat and steamer excursions from Clason Point to downtown Manhattan and a local service to College Point, Queens. Regarded as the “Coney Island of the Bronx,” Clason Point was always buzzing with working and middle-class New Yorkers who would flock there during warm weather.

The seven killed in the crash, according to the Evening World.

DANATRO, LOUIS, twenty-four, No. 524 Edith Street, Bronx.

FREDA, MRS. PASQUALE, thirty- eight, No. 249 East 147th Street.

LAWYER, AMELIA, nine, No. 122 West 111th Street.

PELLEBRINI, LASALE, forty, address unknown.

FREDA, PASQUALE, forty, No. 249 East 147th Street.

VANDERPOOL, DELLA, Negress, thirty, No. 43 West 130th Street,

White woman, thirty-five, not Identified.

– Jonathan Goldman, June 10, 1922 

TAGS: accidents, disasters, death, weather, storm, entertainment, amusement park