On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam failed catastrophically, unleashing a wall of water that devastated the industrial town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In this gripping account, David McCullough reconstructs the disaster that killed over 2,200 people and became one of America's deadliest peacetime catastrophes. Through meticulous research and vivid storytelling, McCullough examines the engineering failures, human negligence, and social inequalities that led to the tragedy, while honoring the resilience of survivors and the community's remarkable recovery. A masterwork of narrative history that explores how ambition, carelessness, and nature's fury collided with devastating consequences.