As trains pass by on either side, a lone person walks across the Brooklyn Bridge on March 14, 1888. (Wallace G. Levison/Dahlstrom Collection/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)
Workers dig out the snow from underneath an elevated train line after the blizzard of 1888. (Bettmann/CORBIS)
Snow covers a street and blows against a row of apartment houses surrounding Trinity Church during the Blizzard of 1888. The biggest storm to hit the eastern US in the 19th century. (Bettmann/CORBIS)
Great Blizzard of 1888 changes NYC
The Great Blizzard of 1888 was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in the history of the United States. Snowfalls of 20–60 inches fell in parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and sustained winds of more than 45 miles per hour produced snowdrifts in excess of 50 feet.
Railroads were shut down and people were confined to their houses for up to a week. Sources vary on the total devastation caused by this massive storm, but over 400 people lost their lives, some 200 in New York City.