There's a quiet curve in McCabe Park, tucked away from the walking trails and golf club. A plaque commemorates the silence of the spot, a heartbreaking memory, hands heavy over the whole of it. Maybe you wouldn't call it, "evil," per say, but the wicked tragedy that occurred at Dutchman's Curve should never be forgotten.
Did you know that the deadliest train wreck in the United States occurred in Nashville, Tennessee? It's a shocker to many, a bit of trivia to some. 101 deaths and 171 injuries resulted in response to, "human error". It was a simple mistake that went down in history.
On July 9th, 1918, two trains traveling at fifty miles-per-hour ran head-on into each other right outside of the Nashville city center. Both were operated by the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway and collided on a single-stretch line known as Dutchman's Curve. It's now located in the Sylvan Park area, with McCabe built around it.
How could something like this happen, you ask? The wooden train cars splintered and veritably exploded on impact, a disaster of epic proportions. There wasn't an effective system in place at the time, and when tower operators failed to properly account for the trains on the line it ended in tragedy. If the cars weren't made of wood, if there was a system in place, the disaster may have never taken place.
It is recorded that 50,000 people turned up to the wreck site to help out the injured passengers and to clear away the dead. Many were workers coming up from Arkansas to work at the nearby gunpowder plant, so it took a lengthy bit of time to contact the families. The heartache was tremendous. Pictured, you can see the pathway that leads to the memorial in McCabe Park, located just off the main pathway.
Here you can see the plaque that commemorates the loss of so many at Dutchman's Curve. You can read the history while on a walk, and ponder the sad historical moment as you wander back to your car.
There's always a bit of evil to boundless sadness, if you ask us. What a horror to visit, but what a moment to remember. Did you know the story of Dutchman's Curve?
What an eerie thing to remember...did you realize next year will mark 100 years since the accident? Let's lighten up the atmosphere with 11 Things That Come To Everyone’s Mind When They Think Of Nashville, why don't we?
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