Erie Flood of 1915
Discover how a massive tube saved Erie, Pennsylvania.
On Aug. 13, 1915, Mill Creek flooded Erie, Pennsylvania. A tropical storm system along the East Coast met a low-pressure system over Lake Erie, triggering three heavily localized downpours that within hours dumped nearly 6 inches of rain in Erie. Water overflowed the creek’s banks before eventually roaring through downtown, with hundreds of buildings damaged, and dozens killed.
Mayor W.J. Stern called it a catastrophe, and he and other city leaders swore it would never happen again. They took on a flood mitigation project that would be an engineering marvel of its time — and to this day.
A dam was considered, but fears of its failure prompted the passage of a $950,000 bond issue for construction of a tube that would reroute the creek under the city, into Presque Isle Bay. Construction began in 1917, but as the United States inched closer to involvement in what was then called the World War, material became harder to come by.
The sheer enormity of the tube is nearly unfathomable. Using dragline excavators — at the time, cutting-edge technology — a trench of more than two miles was dug through Erie, and an 18-foot by 22-foot concrete tube was cast on site, 45 feet at a time. The tube was big enough to drive a truck through and could accommodate a flood flow capacity of 12,000 cubic feet per second. About a mile upstream is a 209-foot-long drift catcher, designed to filter fallen trees and other debris that could block the tube. (If you ride the train at the Erie Zoo, you’ll roll along the top of the drifter, which was redesigned in 1965 to also serve as a train trestle.)
On Nov. 26, 1921, the tube was given over to the city, and remains in use to this day. It’s regularly inspected by firefighters — who say it’s not for the faint of heart; one likened it to a black hole, with no light or ability to communicate — and for more than a century, it’s served its main purpose. There hasn’t been a major flood in Erie since its opening.
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