legend of a Small Village of Midgets and Little People near Bridgeville Pa.

There is chatter now and again about a little village or hamlet of little people or midgets who lived near Bridgeville and supposedly mined coal from one of the tiny coal seams no higher than 18 inches  and they all lived in little homes ..

It appears to be nothing more than an Urban Legend and may have been started as one theory goes by miners them selves who worked that thin coal seem on their sides if it even existed in that area as the Pittsburgh seam a much thicker seam  that was worked in the area .

Supposedly there where small houses with small yard's etc to boot.
I know as a child there was a couple places where people had built miniature  play houses for their kids around  the bridgeville area and there where some pretty elaborate  gardens etc with miniature houses in them but an actual village of living small people Not that I have been able to find.

There is a reference to Blue Myst road in North Park and groups of little people attacking cars


Again nothing to it.Urban Legend 

There is also mention of Pittsburgh again in the below article  about a small village of houses but they where several of these around the area one on Pa 51 in Jefferson where small sample homes where built I believe by Columbus Builders.




Which again people  may have construed into a village of small people  especially if you where a young child passing them.


The Midget Village theme seems to pop up not only around Pittsburgh but Philadelphia as well as many other areas around the tri-state area.and across the country for that matter.








Now what people may have been referring to near Bridgeville is Mayview State Hospital   where mental midgets was used as a derogatory term for patients there.
and it got convoluted into a tale of a real live village of midgets again just a theory .

Its amazing how stories get started and spread and there are plenty of them around Pittsburgh which are just that stories and nothing more this appears to be one of them. 

The Day it Rained Bananas in Pittsburgh's Strip District

Now a completely changed landscape from what it was once. Pittsburgh's Strip District has surely changed with the times. there was a time when you drove down Smallman Street and you would see lines of trucks loading fresh produce which had just come in by rail and later large 18 wheeled trucks .

But one day things got out of hand when it literally rained bananas down in the strip after an explosion at the  long closed Pittsburgh Banana Company .which was recently torn down to build condos and so another piece of Pittsburgh history to be lost for ever.






 It was December 1936 when a lone worker that fateful morning  flipped a switch around 2 am and caused the gas which had built up from the bananas to explode ripping off the roof and destroying much of the building and damaging a near by church .miraculously the employee survived being buried under the bananas



A Forgotten Horrific Train Wreck Behind the old D.L Clark company on Pittsburgh's North side

After all the drama of last weeks Train Derailment in Pittsburgh's Station Square which still is causing repercussions from all the damage it caused and miraculously no one was hurt or killed .



And a  more serious wreck occurred about 30 years before in Bloomfield involving hazardous materials 


 
Pittsburgh has seen its share of rail disasters even including trolleys.

But It brings up memories of a  forgotten Horrific Train Crash which took 8-9 lives in February  1934 on Pittsburgh's North Side behind the D.L. Clark Building which sits behind Heinz Stadium.

Back then the area was bustling with industrial activity and junk and rail yards which included the D.L.Clark Company and its famous Clark (candy ) Bar
 





https://www.facebook.com/OddPittsburgh/videos/2178215112422352/ 

Thanks to Odd,Mysterious & Fascinating Pittsburgh Facebook group for the video link


The luxury express train on its way from Akron to New York  was starting to round the slight bend when it went off the tracks and over the steep wall falling approx . 50 ft trapping and killing the Engineer and Fireman  and in total killing 8-9 people one who had just gotten on 30 minutes earlier F.R.Dravo  was head of the then famous Dravo Corporation  whose barges and dredging operations where all over Pittsburgh's rivers till its eventual closing in the 80's after the steel mills closed.

It was thought a frozen switch caused the accident but as far as I can find no official cause was found.

This was not the only such tragedy on Pittsburgh's North Side which has seen horrific deaths, from factory fires and  east  and spring garden valley flooding  there have been many horrific deaths and if you happen to ride behind the D.L Clark company and get a little tingle something happened there now you know why.

In doing research on this article I came upon another train wreck  but date of this video says 1938 which i can find no such accident in Pittsburgh but this may show further down from clark building
so another mystery to solve


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqCec6A8pLk

This video may be on the other side of the wall from Clark Building but so much has changed in that area hard to tell but it clearly shows Pittsburg in title when it did not have the H.  but it sure looks like the clark building area wreck.. 

Note: update it has been determined above video was a train wreck on W. Carson street near West End circle . Engineer was killed when stones on track flipped engine over hill side