Biography on hawks nest incident
The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster has been called one of the worst industrial disasters in U.S. history....
Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster
Tunnel in West Virginia where hundreds of workers contracted silicosis
The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster was a large-scale incident of occupational lung disease in the 1930s as the result of the construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, as part of a hydroelectric project.
This project is considered to be one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.[1]
Tunnel
Kanawha and New River Power Company, a subsidiary of Union Carbide, diverted the New River to increase power generation at a plant in Alloy, West Virginia.
For fifty years it has been known as a water- shed in American industrial medicine: the event that identified a new and terrible disease and had far-reaching.
Beginning in March of 1930, its contractor Rinehart & Dennis began construction of the 3-mile (4.8 km) tunnel carrying the river under Gauley Mountain. A dam was constructed immediately below Hawks Nest to divert most of the New River flow into the tunnel.
It then re-enters the river near Gauley Bridge leaving a section known as "the Dries" in between.
Silica
Facing wide