The Great ChaIn

They tried rocks. They tried underwater spikes. They even tried sunken ships. The colonists did anything and everything they could to stop the British from taking over the Hudson River. The American Navy was almost nonexistent in comparison to its Motherland, so stopping invaders with firepower was not an option. After deciding the rocks, spikes and sunken ships were not enough, they formed a new plan. They didn’t have a record number of boats to stop invaders, but they did have iron.

Under the direction of George Washington, and in six weeks, with the help of seven forges and ten welding fires, the revolutionaries created a chain—but this chain had links that were almost three inches thick and two to three feet long.  The chain weighed 65 tons and they placed it underwater from one bank of the river to the other. The chain blocked the entire waterway for the rest of the war. 

Coney Island

There weren't always NICU’s, there weren't always specialized doctors and nurses, and there weren't incubators to help premature babies grow into healthy, happy adults. In fact, in the early 1900s, despite advances in the medical field, many people didn't even believe that teeny tiny babies could live healthy, happy lives. One New York doctor focused on creating a sterilized environment for premature babies. Despite the successful medical trials of 33-year-old Dr. Martin Couney, the scientific community was still hesitant to implement his experimental “incubators” in hospitals around the country.

Dr. Couney knew that in order to equip hospitals with his new discovery, he would need public exposure--a lot of public exposure. Eventually he was approached by a showman named Frederick Thompson and it wasn't long before Thompson convinced the doctor to open a sideshow at Luna Park on Coney Island.

That summer Couney opened up the baby incubator exhibit. Coney Island boasted the arrival of thousands of daily visitors. For $.25 visitors could walk among teeny tiny babies and marvel at the possible ways to save them. Not everybody was impressed with the exhibit though. The Brooklyn Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children soon launched an official investigation into the exhibit by arguing that the children were being abused and exploited. The doctor’s response was that he was providing a free hospital. The children had nowhere else to go if they wanted to survive. After some back and forth, Brooklyn dropped the investigation.

The exhibit ran for the next four decades and is credited with saving over 6000 lives. It was Coney Island's longest running exhibit but after 40 years when incubators were available in numerous hospitals, Couney closed the exhibit.

Flight of the 28

He pretended to be a farmer, but when John Fairfield went to Boone County, Kentucky in 1853, he wasn’t there to sell vegetables. He was there to free slaves—as many as he could find who were willing to risk escape. If they were caught running away, slaves would be beaten, killed, or sold further down South so they couldn’t try to escape again. Fairfield finally found twenty-eight slaves who wanted to escape. His plan was to take a boat full of people up the Ohio River to Cincinnati, Ohio. Then the slaves could stay in safe houses all the way to Canada. Sadly, however, the team was slowed down by muddy riverbanks and didn’t reach Cincinnati until dawn. Twenty-eight fugitive slaves faced traveling through a city in broad daylight. No one had any idea what to do, so Fairfield went to find help, while the slaves huddled in a ravine by the river.  With every passing minute, their fear of capture grew and grew. 

Levi Coffin, Fairfield’s friend and fellow abolitionist, had many safe houses on the other side of Cincinnati, but Fairfield’s twenty-eight still had to make it through the city without being identified. Desperate and scared, the two friends devised a plan. Weslan Cemetery was one of the first to allow black and white burials, and Coffin knew that. Fairfield could pose as an undertaker leading a funeral procession made up of black and white people. The slaves would cross through town posing as mourners at the procession. Weslan Cemetery was not far from one of Coffin’s safe houses, and the party could hide there on their way to Canada. It was crazy, but it was a plan. As the group started down the city streets they were all terrified of being caught and captured. But, incredibly, viewers saw them following a coffin and bowed their heads in respect of the dead. All the slaves entered Weslan cemetery and eventually made it to Canada.