New York City’s skyscrapers were barely visible, engulfed in air so thick “you could feel the bits of smog sticking to your face,” Bill Burke recalled.
While the hazy images bear a resemblance to Wednesday’s eerie orange skies as smoke from Canadian wildfires engulfs the city, Burke was recalling the “killer smog” of 1966, when a heavy cloud of sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide enveloped New York.
That year, the toxic smog — stemming mostly from industrial residues and power plants using coal — hovered for some three days, starting on Thanksgiving and prompting a citywide alert that ordered all incinerators to close and utility companies to use natural gas. People with cardiovascular and respiratory problems were urged to stay inside during what’s now considered one of the worst air-pollution episodes and environmental disasters in modern U.S. history.
Burke, who was 11 in 1966, was in New York City for a family wedding. He recalls being holed up at the hotel most of the time because after just a few minutes outside, they would have to “wash pollution off your face and hands,” he said.
“I hadn’t seen anything like it in my life before or since,” he said.
Now, nearly 57 years later, the thick haze blanketing the city is bringing back memories of the days when the Mamas & the Papas and the Beatles were all the rage, Lyndon B. Johnson was president, and concerns about pollution and other environmental problems had just begun creeping into the public’s consciousness. About four years later, Congress passed the landmark Clean Air Act, meant to reduce air pollution.
Burke, who now lives in Rochester, N.Y., said that while there are parallels between the two events — “places and buildings that should be readily visible are obscured in the haze” — they’re not quite the same.
“Even as a child, I knew [the smog] was due to human activity,” he said, adding that this week’s haze reminded him of a trip he took to Wyoming in 2021, when Grand Teton National Park was obscured with smoke and a campfire smell lingered in the air.
“The air feels different in that it doesn’t require me to wash my face as soon as I get back indoors,” Burke added.