Bird's-Eye View of Dock Front, Galveston

Bird's-eye View of Dock Front, Galveston (1900)

On September 8th, 1900, the city of Galveston was hit by a hurricane and tidal wave, which would end up costing more than 2500 lives. With winds of up to 135mph, many considered this one of the deadliest storms of its time and the Edison studio sent cameras down there to capture some of the aftermath. I'm sure many would see this as some sort of exploitation as there's no question the studio would have made a lot of money but today it's interesting to see this footage simply from a historical point of view.

Of all the Edison films that took a look at the Galveston disaster, this one here runs the longest at just under 70-seconds and features some more striking visuals. We start off with a pan of various warehouses and boats that are pretty much wrapped around one another. Once again we see tons of debris stacked on top on one another and it's just amazing to see the power of this storm. We also get a brief look at some tents that were set up for survivors who found themselves homeless after the storm struck. Fans of history will certainly want to see this footage as it's an amazing visual as there's not too much film from this period and storm. Of the seven films available this one here contains some of the rawest footage.