1936 Flood and the Standard Oil Tanks

 

 I was looking for photos of the bridges over the Seneca River / Barge Canal and came across this in my files. The bridge can be seen off in the distance behind the trees, but for this post, the Standard Oil Tank farm can be seen just around the bend of the road. In the days before pipelines and the thruway, the large oil companies would have these oil tank farms located along the canal. The barges would fill the tanks all during the summer and then sell the heating oil in the winter, along with other petroleum products. You can still see these in some communities, although they have long ago been abandoned and replaced by oil tank farms located along the underground pipelines that cross the landscape. This farm was taken down in the late 1990's, although some signs of the brownfield left behind can be seen next to the restaurant.

I found this newspaper article that details what was going on when this photo was taken all the way back in 1936.