A closer look
In the late 19th century, architects loved building monumental, arched train sheds to trap a maximum amount of toxic steam and soot for dramatic effect. Philadelphia's Broad Street Station boasted one of the largest in the world. Unfortunately, building a gigantic canopy mostly out of timber and then constantly parking fire-breathing steam locomotives underneath it was a statistically terrible idea. In 1923, the inevitable happened: the whole thing caught fire and spectacularly collapsed in a towering inferno. Miraculously, no one died, but railway companies swiftly realized that immense wooden roofs and flying sparks were an idiotic combination.
