Existing comment:
Stagnation and Sickness
"The discharge of sewer matter into the streams and small rivers pollutes the water by the mixture of much organic matter into a state of active putrescence."
- Smithsonian Board of Regents
Not long after the Washington City Canal was built, it became a nuisance.
The shallow depth of the canal limited the types of boats that could use it. Its poor design created three different currents over the course of the day. Eventually, barges stopped using the canal entirely.
The canal was also unsafe. Pedestrians and horses fell into the canal in the dark of night. Raw sewage flowed and was thrown into the canal. The waste-ridden water found its way onto the Potomac River flats where it accumulated. The smelly, disease-ridden canal and river flats become a metaphor for government corruption and a breeding ground of disease that killed prominent Washingtonians.
Killed by the Water
Some of the first residents of the White House were killed by bacteria, attracted by the bad quality of the local water
President William Henry Harrison died in 1841, most likely from enteric fever, a sickness cased by paratyphi bacteria.
President James K. Polk died in 1846 from cholera after being weakened by gastroenteritis.
President Zachary Taylor died in 1850 from gastroenteritis
Abraham Lincoln's son, Willie, died in 1862 from typhoid fever, a bacterial sickness. |