03/17/2026
90 years ago today.
The winter of 1936 was a cold one. The rivers choked with ice; much snow had fallen throughout the season, but little had melted.
In the third week of March temperatures rose sharply and heavy rains began to fall across the northeast. The snowpack began to melt, and the rivers began rising.
On March 17th in Pittsburgh (where the effects of the flood were most destructive) the rivers reached the 25-foot flood stage. Heavy rains continued to fall overnight and on March 18th Pittsburgh recorded a depth of 46 feet, 21 feet above flood stage.
In Leechburg, PA no official depth was recorded. Photographs from the event show that the water on Market Street was at least knee deep. Accounts state that the water in town had reached a depth of 3 to 15 feet from the town limits in the east to Georgetown in the west. Hundreds were rendered homeless in town and were without food or clothing. Fireman labored day and night with ladders and boats rescuing people trapped in their homes. The town lay in the dark for 60 hours as the power plant too had been flooded.
The damage was extensive. Multiple buildings had been razed and four were carried off by the river, hundreds more suffered water damage. Route 66 to Vandergrift had been washed out in several places. The Hyde Park Foot Bridge was gone as was the West Leechburg Railroad Bridge. The Leechburg Bridge, having been built in 1935, was one of few bridges on the Kiskiminetas to survive the flood. It had been raised to a substantial height above the river during construction to prepare for the possibility of Kiskiminetas River navigation (a project that never occurred).
The West Leechburg Steel Mill was flooded and out of service. The railroad was wiped out in this valley and many others. The West Penn Railway’s trolley tracks from Leechburg, PA to Apollo, PA were destroyed, and the line would have to be abandoned. In Bagdad five houses went down river, the same for two in Banfield.
