The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster was a large-scale incident of occupational lung disease in the 1930s resulting from construction of the 32–36-foot (9.8–11.0 m) wide Hawks Nest Tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, as part of a hydroelectric project. The loss of life is considered to be one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.
The disaster's roots lay in the push to have enough hydroelectric power for a metallurgical plant in Boncar, later named Alloy, West Virginia. It involved one of the country's largest corporations, Union Carbide and Carbon Company, and occurred during the early years of the Great Depression. The primary actors, in addition to Union Carbide and Carbon Company, were Rinehart and Dennis, a regional construction company, and thousands of people searching for work. In the end, the estimate is that 4800 men (1700 white and 3100 Black) worked on the project, but only 738 white men worked underground. Many of the Black men had migrated from the South.
The general causes for the disaster were a push for speed, which led to the majority of the drilling being done dry, rather than wet, and a lack of concern for employee safety.
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