It happened in 1930-1931 at the start of the Great Depression. Jobs were scarce. About 5,000 workers came with their families to the mountains of southern West Virginia to build a railroad bridge. The pay was low and the working conditions appalling.

The workers were ordered to pulverize rocks containing high concentrations of silica - up to 99.44 percent in some cases. Company officials who visited the worksite were given masks to wear. But workers were not.

By the time work ended, 476 workers had died of silicosis. Another 1,500 contracted the disease within a year or two. The Gauley Bridge Tunnel affair remains a monument to corporate greed and one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.

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