American railroad history is filled with accounts of misadventure. Steam boilers blew up. Bridges collapsed under the weight of heavy engines. Locomotives crashed head-on because of signal failures. Passenger cars derailed, often with dire results. Lightly built wooden coaches splintered on impact, and the debris often ignited from the coals in the iron stoves used for heating. In the mid-nineteenth century American railroading was burgeoning--a growth too fast for safe operations. Despite the grim statistics of 19th and early 20th century train wrecks that resulted, one cannot help but find...

Smashups: The Hazards of Travel offers an intriguing iconography of travel accidents of all genres-air, highway, railway, and water-wrecks involving trucks, buses, cars, light planes, jetliners, seaplanes, freight trains, and ships. There are also European wrecks, Asian wrecks, American wrecks, minor crashes, major ones, horse and cart wrecks, freak accidents, and even ordinary ones. With over 180 photographs, most never-before published in America and many of historical, national, and international importance, you can now experience the thrill of danger in the safety of your own home