page_title: Anchor Line (riverboat company)
section_title: The 1896 tornado
hierarchical_section_title: Anchor Line (riverboat company) / History / Decline and collapse, 1894-1898 / The 1896 tornado
caption_attribution_description: English: Postcard of the Levee at St. Louis, Missouri (USA). View ca. 1895; published by V. O. Hammon Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois (USA). Published ca. 1907 or later; never mailed.
context_page_description: The Anchor Line was a steamboat company that operated a fleet of boats on the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, between 1859 and 1898, when it went out of business. It was one of the most well-known, if not successful, pools of steamboats formed on the lower Mississippi River in the decades following the American Civil War.
context_section_description: Historians say that the Anchor Line was ultimately doomed by the 1896 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado that struck on May 27. The tornado touched down in the core of St. Louis and swept eastward across the river into East St. Louis, Illinois. The resulting death toll was a confirmed 255 people, though estimates put the number at close to 400. This is in part because the Anchor Line's floating palaces (as well as other steamboats) stationed at the St. Louis landing lay directly in the tornado's path. The Anchor Line's boats the Arkansas City and the City of Cairo were completely destroyed, and the City of Monroe was badly damaged.
  Later that year the company launched another boat, the Bluff City. In 1897, the Anchor Line repaired, extended, and installed electric lights on the City of Monroe, renaming it the Hill City. It issued a 22-page brochure, entitled A Romantic Trip to the Sunny South, in an attempt to lure passengers.  Nonetheless, that same year the Bluff City was destroyed by fire, the Belle Memphis was irreparably damaged by a snag, and the City of Hickman, sank.
  The disasters ultimately proved too costly for the Anchor Line to weather, and in 1898 it sold off its remaining boats and ceased operations.
caption: The Anchor Line wharf on the levee at St. Louis, Missouri, ca. 1895. Postcard view published sometime after 1907. The City of New Orleans can be seen docked at right.
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