In February 1916, during the construction of the BMT under the East River, a blowout occured in the tunnel, and the hogs were sucked through the widening hole. One hog, Marshal Mabey, was shot through 12 feet of riverbed, through the water of the East River and into the afternoon sky on a geyser four stories high!
He surrived! Mabey went on working in the tunnels for another 25 years, and even his two sons became sandhogs.
Click on the hog to hear more./p>