History: The Wreck Of The Old 97

"While runnning at a high rate of speed Train No. 97 on the Southern Railway, the south-bound fast mail train, jumped from a trestle 75 feet high, half a mile north of Danville, Va., this afternoon and was almost demolished."

--NY Times, September 27, 1903.

The rest, as they say, is history...

The Wreck of the Old 97 is one of the most famous American folk ballads, with a number of different versions. My favorite version is by Johnny Cash, who provides an excuse to Steve the engineer and a stern warning to the ladies of the world:

Johnny Cash: Wreck Of The Old 97 [purchase]

The basis for Cash's version is this 1924 recording by Vernon Dalhart, which was part of the first million-selling record in country music history.

Vernon Dalhart: Wreck Of The Old 97 [purchase]

Click here to download the full NY Times article, complete with gory details and a few interesting facts (i.e., a box of live canaries survived the crash unharmed).

Check out this informative Wikipedia article for more about what caused the accident (the inexperienced engineer?, the difficult stretch of track?, the railroad company's financial incentive to rush delivery?) and the copyright dispute over the songwriting credit.

Finally, here's one more from the great Shel Silverstein:

Shel Silverstein: Wreck Of The Old 49 [purchase]