It’s always a pleasure when author Richard Grayson sends me stories of his life in Brooklyn. This one is in honor of Earth Day. I remember this earthquake, too. We were living on the Lower East Side then and felt it.
This morning I was reading the New York Times reports of yesterday’s rare Midwestern earthquake and comments by Chicagoans like this one: “It actually woke me up. And I thought, my bed is shaking! What’s going on?"
I had the same experience in Park Slope in 1985. For four months I’d taken over my friend Judd Silverman’s share in a duplex apartment on President Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue while he was in Pennsylvania directing plays. On Saturday, October 20, I was sleeping soundly in bed when suddenly the bed started shaking violently enough to wake me up. I looked up and the lighting fixture above was swaying back and forth. It lasted just a few seconds and I drifted back to sleep.
I woke up around 7:30 a.m. and hurried off to a Saturday graduate class in computer education at Teachers College. On the subway I remember musing about that weird dream I’d had about being in an earthquake. It wasn’t until the class took its break after a couple of hours and we headed to the basement cafeteria for snacks that I heard our professor ask, "How’d you like that earthquake this morning?"
I couldn’t believe it was real. When I got back to the Slope, I went over to Sterling Place, where my friend Susan Mernit (now a well-known dot-com entrepreneur in Silicon Valley) lived with her family. She said they’d heard a rumbling noise with the earthquake and the ground shook considerably, if very briefly.
Talking to other people in the neighborhood, I discovered that many people felt the quake and then turned on the radio or TV and got confirmation that there had indeed been an earthquake, preceded by a smaller foreshock.
They struck about two minutes apart shortly after 6 a.m. and were centered in Ardsley in Westchester County. Seismologists at Columbia University said the quake had measured 4.0 on the Richter scale and the foreshock 2.0.
Other people in the Slope, like Judd’s two roommates, seemed to sleep through the whole thing. I was the only one I could find who’d assumed I was dreaming.
I wonder if other Slope residents have memories of that quake. It occurred just three weeks after Hurricane Gloria came through and downed a number of trees and lots of branches in the neighborhood.
Incidentally, the strongest earthquake to hit metro New York was centered right here in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon, August 10, 1884. Scientists say it was a 5.0 on the Richter scale. Here’s a contemporary newspaper report:
"The policemen on the Brooklyn bridge report that the shock was distinctly felt there, and the great towers at either end oscillated visibly, while the bridge itself rocked as if struck by a hurricane. The shock was felt generally along the river fronts, and the piers were shaken as if by a heavily loaded truck passing over them. At the iron steamboat pier, which is built of solid masonry, the motion was so violent that the ticket-takers rushed from their offices to ascertain the cause of the commotion.
The late afternoon boats brought back crowds from Coney Island, where it was said that the shock was much more violent that in the city. The piazzas and dining-rooms at the Manhattan and Brighton Beach were well filled when a rumbling noise was hear, followed by a rocking of the ground, which made window panes rattle and shock dishes and wine glasses from the tables. There was a general rush for the open air, and great excitement prevailed. There was a general rush toward the main entrance, the people being under the impression that the structure was giving way.
In Brooklyn the earthquake was felt very generally throughout the city. Along the river front and in the eastern district the chock appears to have been heavier and of longer duration. Everywhere people ran from their houses in terror. People in Greenpoint started on a run for the immense oil works which are located on the shore of Newton creek, thinking that an explosion had occurred there, while all the fire companies harnessed their horses in readiness to respond to an alarm of fire, which they thought would soon follow.
The sensation experienced on board the receiving ship Vermont, lying in the Brooklyn navy-yard, was similar to that felt when a broadside is discharged from a ship at some distance. According to the story of one of the sailors, there was a distinctly perceptible jar felt, and it was noticed by all on board. Persons traveling in street cars felt the vibration, and in many instances the wheels of the car seemed to leave the track, producing the same effect as when they pass over a loose switch.
The bell of a Presbyterian church in Greenpoint swayed back and forth and rang several times loud enough to be heard by all the people living in the neighborhood. Among other evidences of the violence of the agitation in Brooklyn may be mentioned the stopping of clocks, the throwing down of a high pile of bricks, the swinging of lamps and pictures and the like. Many of the Sunday-schools were in session at the time, and the teachers had in some instances great difficulty in allaying the fears of the scholars."
Not to be forgotten. I woke up thinking the bed was moving-not possible. It couldn’t be an earthquake. I mean New York City had some major issues going on back then, but we were safe from earthquakes! Being that I was on the 16th floor of a building on the corner of Plaza Street and Flatbush Avenue, I had to discount that thought, because there was no way out. I wasn’t doing the elevator and who knew if there were exit stairs. I tried to get my husband, who was busily snoring away, to panic with me, but he held his ground-so to speak. We went back to sleep.
I remember that morning clearly because I was up with my newborn son. I lived on 4th Ave and 12th St and at first I thought it was just a truck. But the rumbling seemed to go on for a while so I knew that it wasn’t a truck but I wasn’t sure what it was until later when my aunt called to tell me it was an earthquake. I remember thinking I was glad I hadn’t realized it was an earthquake at the time because I lived in a small apt on the ground floor of a four story building. And even in the best of circumstances, getting out of the building wasn’t easy.
I’ll never forget that 1985 quake! The only one I ever felt. I woke up to see the handles on my dresser banging about and felt the shaking. Still hazy with sleep, I could have written it off as a very big truck passing by, until I touched base with family later and found out it really was a quake. Coming on the heels of Hurricane Gloria in a region that rarely gets hit with either, it left a lot of us musing about the end of times.
I lived in Mineola,Long Island. I was out at the local establishment came home and fell asleep at 4:30 AM. At about 6AM I felt somebody was under my bed moving it back and fourth. My first thought was what the hell did they stuff my drinks with. Then I thought to myself this feels like an Earthquake but it can’t be we are not in California. Of course it was and as it turns out we can have Earthquakes upwards of 5.0 to 6.0 on the Richter scale. There are many faults below the region including the Indian Point nuclear plant. With all the attention on so called Global warming this scares me. A 5.5 would probably knock down most buildings here.
The other thing about that quake it came a few weeks after Hurricane Gloria on Sept 27. To this day this is the last earthquake and hurricane of any note here
I lived in Mineola,Long Island. I was out at the local establishment came home and fell asleep at 4:30 AM. At about 6AM I felt somebody was under my bed moving it back and fourth. My first thought was what the hell did they stuff my drinks with. Then I thought to myself this feels like an Earthquake but it can’t be we are not in California. Of course it was and as it turns out we can have Earthquakes upwards of 5.0 to 6.0 on the Richter scale. There are many faults below the region including the Indian Point nuclear plant. With all the attention on so called Global warming this scares me. A 5.5 would probably knock down most buildings here.
The other thing about that quake it came a few weeks after Hurricane Gloria on Sept 27. To this day this is the last earthquake and hurricane of any note here
I lived in Mineola,Long Island. I was out at the local establishment came home and fell asleep at 4:30 AM. At about 6AM I felt somebody was under my bed moving it back and fourth. My first thought was what the hell did they stuff my drinks with. Then I thought to myself this feels like an Earthquake but it can’t be we are not in California. Of course it was and as it turns out we can have Earthquakes upwards of 5.0 to 6.0 on the Richter scale. There are many faults below the region including the Indian Point nuclear plant. With all the attention on so called Global warming this scares me. A 5.5 would probably knock down most buildings here.
The other thing about that quake it came a few weeks after Hurricane Gloria on Sept 27. To this day this is the last earthquake and hurricane of any note here
I was 4 years old in ’84, but still remember this one. I was just reading about the 5.2 quake in LA today, and thought I’d Google around to see what the Richter scale reading was. My kid brain thought it must be another woman named “Gloria” tromping around. Thanks for the post!
I was living in Jamaica Queens at the time. Just came back from working in a niteclub – Shout – the 50’s and 60’s joint that used to be Xenon’s that used to be the former NBC TV Studio if I recall correctly. I had just gotten in and greeted my dog Sheila Weintraub and at about five to 6AM, I turned on 1010 Wins Radio, and they had reported an earthquake in Japan. I was laying on my futon with Sheila, explaining in her ear what an earthquake was, when she bolted up and started barking with her hair all up on end. Very shortly afterwards, within seconds, it sounded like someone was trying to break my door down. Then I noticed that all of the windows were buckling slights. I was living in a section called Briarwood, just off of Hillside Avenue – up the hill, so my first floor apartment had a view of JFK. This building was on the glacial morrain which seemed to intensify the vibrations. After the shaking stopped, I picked up the phone and dialed 411 info, and the operator seemed agitated as she said “information, can I help you” and I asked “Did you feel that?” And she said, “YES! That was an earthquake! Let’s keep the lines clear.” So I hung up and immediately it rang and I picked up and it was my ex-lover Joe who was scared out of his wits. Pretty neat. The one’s I experienced in SF were by far more intense, but the NY one was totally unexpected.
I remember it also because it woke me up. I was living on 8th avenue between 12th & 13th Street on the top floor no less. It was more noise than anything else. It sounded like coal being delivered if anyone can remember what that sounds like. I thought that maybe the F train derailed or something. The thing is I think that the center of that earthquake was actually upstate NY and not Brooklyn. But does anyone remember the explosion and fire in NJ around 1982 that sounded the same?