Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
On March 29, 1936, when the Wheeling News Register published a special supplement com-
memorating the flood, it offered an artist's sketch of what it called “Wheeling's Greatest
Flood.” That description is still accurate. Like Pittsburgh, Wheeling would find the flood of
1936 far more damaging than that of 1937. In 1936, the Ohio crested at 55.5 feet, nearly 10
feet higher than the 46.2 feet that would be recorded in 1937.
As the March 1936 flood moved down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and
Wheeling, West Virginia, businesses and homeowners in the cities downriver began prepar-
ing for the worst. On March 20, the water in the streets of Marietta, Ohio, reached a 48-foot
crest. A handwritten note on this postcard indicates the photograph was taken March 22
after the water had fallen by six feet. Flooded Putnam Street businesses seen here include
the New System Bakery and the F. W. Woolworth Company.
Opened in 1926, Huntington's Sixth Street Bridge was the city's first—and for many years
only—bridge across the Ohio River. It was closed in 1993 and later demolished, replaced
by the new Robert C. Byrd Bridge. Here the old bridge provides the backdrop for a 1936
flood photograph of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Freight Station. Look closely at the
photograph's center section to see a man wading through the water. (Courtesy the C&O
Historical Society.)
