Wreck on the C&O

Across the Greenbrier River on October 23, 1890, engineer George Washington Alley, born July 10, 1860, was scalded to death when Engine No. 134, pulling the Fast Flying Virginian from Cincinnati to Washington, hit a boulder on the tracks. Firemen Lewis Withrow and Robert Foster were injured. Alley, pinned in the cab, died before rescuers and family could free him. The disaster was solemnized in verse and song as “The Wreck on the C&O” and “Fatal Run.”

Hinton, West Virginia · United States