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March 1942. Washington, D.C. "Bus going through the snow near Connecticut Avenue and Chevy Chase Circle." No one ever moved to Washington for the weather! Photo by John Ferrell for the Office of War Information. View full size.
I grew up in Baltimore in the 40's and every time there was a storm over three inches in depth the "Old Folks" would go into detail about that Palm Sunday Blizzard.
My mother (b. 1904) who lived into the 1980's was still talking about that storm in her 80's. Her eyes would glaze over whenever a big snow storm hit and out would come, "This is bad but on Palm Sunday in '42 we really had a bad storm."
This photo likely was taken during the Palm Sunday Blizzard that hit Baltimore and Washington on March 29-30, 1942. Twenty-two inches of snow fell in Baltimore and about a foot fell in Washington.
This bus is identifiable by the very short windshield, which must have had lots of blind spots. Not to mention the minuscule driver's outside rear view mirror. It appears to be a late 1930s White, and here is a photo shows one that is preserved by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI) in operating condition.
With more than ten years' residence in the greater DC area, I am bound to say that despite the occurrence of heavy weather at least once most winters, the civil authorities usually react as if the blizzard in question were the first since Pangaea broke up, and any motorists with experience of driving in slippery weather have that knowledge wiped from their minds.
This pic was probably at the bus turn-around on the west side of Conn Ave just south of the Circle. DC buses couldn't continue into Maryland. The Maryland buses were allowed to enter the DC to use the turn-around ... but not farther. The restriction on "transborder" service ended some time after WW2.
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