1918 epidemic sent many to final rest on Flu Hill

(Jacques Kelly) ... An eerie pall fell over the city as gas-fired streetlights grew dim because so many utility workers were sick that the flow of fuel slumped. Some 626 streetcar operators were out one day. People were asked to stop making phone calls because many telephone operators (calls were hand connected) were home in sickbeds. "During its six-week reign as the king of all diseases, Spanish influenza struck down 50,000 persons in the city and state and killed 5,160," The Evening Sun reported in November 1918. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress