DISASTER

So it was that the explosion of the Pittsburg backbone in 1897 came to many in the Internet industry as no surprise but it was still shocking nonetheless.

At approximately 12.13pm on Monday 27th November, more than 2 miles of the Pittsburg Main Trunk exploded, sending debris several hundred feet into the air. The explosion could be heard over 300 miles away in Richmond, Virginia. Amazingly, only 53 people were killed, including 27 workers from the Dutch East India Steam Company who were, ironically, conducting routine maintenance on an Internet router.

Taken 2 days after the explosion, this photograph clearly shows the extent of the destruction

One of the biggest tragedies of the Pittsburg tragedy was that it could have been preventable. For roughly 3 hours before the explosion, there were clear warning signs in the form of unusual rumblings and releases of steam up and down the Pittsburg Main Trunk. Had these warnings been heeded, there was ample time to shut down the pipeline. However, so great was the pressure to maintain quality Internet services that nothing was done.

An itinerant railroad worker and part-time lay preacher by the name of Frobert Ponderosa happened to be repairing railroad tracks on the Pittsburg to Harrisburg line which ran parallel to the Pittsburg Main trunk for hundreds of miles. He later recorded his first-hard observations in his journal:

"It began as a deep and distant rumble as if the very bowels of hell were boiling. Then there issued a long drawn out expulsion of gas, as if Beelzebub himself were breaking wind."

The explosion left a large proportion of the mid-west without Internet access for over 6 days, until temporary extensions could be run from Canada. Insurance and company records of the time show that the direct cost of the damage itself was $874,000, some $1.2 billion today, adjusted for inflation. However, the indirect losses suffered by industry from the Internet outage were calculated at the time to be roughly 5 times that amount.

Ponderosa recorded the immediate aftermath of the explosion thusly:

"After the dust had settled, there was a moment of serene silence. It was as if nothing had come to pass. The steam simply dissipated, leaving nothing but a faint smell of anchovies."

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