Monday, August 13, 2012

Hindenburg

The Hindenburg over Boston, a year before the crash.

I’ve long been fascinated with the Hindenburg crash. Not sure why. I suspect that there are a number of factors that come into play. 

Yes, there’s the iconic association with my favorite rock band of all time, but there’s also my interest in history. Then there’s the relevance of the locale. The airship crashed about 25 miles from where I grew up and, I recently learned, it also routinely flew over my adopted home of Boston and eastern Massachusetts during its 17 Atlantic crossings prior to incendiary ends at the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, N.J. 

Perhaps most of all, though, it may be the archetypal nature of the story, one of man stretching his mastery of the universe only to be humbled by the ultimate authority of nature (in this case in the form of static electricity).

Anyway, the point of all this is The Atlantic recently published a fascinating collection of a few dozen photos in tribute to the 75th anniversary of the Zeppelin’s disastrous end in May 1937.







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