Buzz
Although spring is just around the corner, this week’s snowfall has left much of the northeastern United States grappling with the effects of a heavy winter storm. We often take for granted that our roads will be promptly cleared, but reaching this point has been a long journey.
Let’s rewind to the 1700s, when towns in the northeastern United States were beginning to take shape. As these towns expanded, so did their road networks, which in turn necessitated a postal service. As noted by CityLab, during the Great Snow of 1717, the fastest way for mail carriers to travel the snow-covered roads between Boston and New York was to swap their horses for snowshoes and trek on foot. Oof.
However, the relentless snowfall year after year taught early settlers to brace for the winter weather. This meant stockpiling supplies, establishing community groups to provide coal and firewood, and even inventing ski-like runners to attach to carts, enabling sleigh-like transport. Still, while these inventions aided travel in harsh conditions, they didn’t solve the problem of clearing snow from the roads themselves.
This brings us to the 1840s, when the first snowplow patents were granted (though no records show one being used until around 1862). According to the National Snow & Ice Data Center, "The plow was affixed to a cart, pulled by a team of horses, clearing snow-choked streets." While first used in Wisconsin, snowplows quickly became popular in the Northeast. This innovation was soon adapted for trains, with plows attached to the front to keep rail travel moving, even in heavy snow.
Plows made travel easier, but also introduced new problems, like the towering piles of snow that built up along roadsides (a dilemma we still face today). This was particularly troublesome for merchants, whose storefronts became blocked by these snow walls. Additionally, uneven roads posed challenges for sleigh transport.
One solution to this was hiring shovelers to help clear the snow. However, this raised another question: What to do with all the snow? In the late 1880s, cities began combining shovelers and plows to clear roads effectively. Teams worked together to remove snow from busy city streets and dump it into nearby rivers. This not only made transportation easier, but it also created winter employment. Meanwhile, steam railways were elevated to avoid disruptions from snowdrifts.
New York City’s Department of Street Cleaning was established in 1881, highlighting the importance of well-maintained streets to its residents. As noted by Untapped Cities, corrupt officials would accept bribes in exchange for clearing snow in front of certain businesses. (In 1929, the Department of Street Cleaning became the New York City Department of Sanitation.)
The Blizzard of 1888 dumped up to four feet of snow on the Northeast, bringing traffic to a halt and claiming more than 400 lives. Cities took lessons from this disaster, becoming more strategic with their plowing methods. They divided cities into sections for more efficient plowing and began proactively clearing roads as snow fell, instead of waiting until after the storm. One major outcome of the blizzard was the creation of underground transit, a feature familiar to both New Yorkers and Bostonians.
The rise of motorized transportation led to significant improvements in snowplows. They were attached to vehicles, and in 1920, a snow loader was successfully introduced in Chicago, prompting many other cities to adopt similar technology. The conveyor system revolutionized snow removal, making it more efficient and laying the foundation for the snowplowing methods we still use today.
