No. 6: Boston’s deadliest flood

Since Boston is essentially a boggy peninsula in the Atlantic, you'd probably think the city's worst flood disaster would involve water. But the Great Molasses Flood holds that unsavory honor. Molasses can be distilled into rum or industrial alcohol, and the Purity Distilling Co. built a large molasses tank in the North End for their production of alcohol. But on Jan. 15, 1919, millions of pounds of molasses exploded from the tank and tore through the North End's Commercial Street in a fast-movi

Since Boston is essentially a boggy peninsula in the Atlantic, you'd probably think the city's worst flood disaster would involve water. But the Great Molasses Flood holds that unsavory honor. Molasses can be distilled into rum or industrial alcohol, and the Purity Distilling Co. built a large molasses tank in the North End for their production of alcohol. But on Jan. 15, 1919, millions of pounds of molasses exploded from the tank and tore through the North End's Commercial Street in a fast-movi…