47 Dead in Amtrak’s Worst Crash - The Big Bayou Train Disaster

July 9, 1918. In Nashville, Tennessee, two passenger trains traveling on a single track collided head-on at high speed in what remains the deadliest train wreck in U.S. history. Both trains were packed with passengers, many of whom were African American laborers traveling to work at a nearby gunpowder plant during World War I. The impact was so violent that the wooden cars splintered into millions of pieces, and the sound of the crash could be heard miles away. The disaster was caused by a simpl