A RIVER RUNS PUTRID: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sweltered in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that parched the metropolis. An even more repellent force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial discharges had transformed London's lifeblood into a nauseating odor. The stench was overwhelming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone a

The year the year of our Lord eight hundred and forty-five AD. A chill wind whistled across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent of salt and fear. The Norsemen were upon us, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking glory. Their longships, like beasts of the north, sliced through the waters, their flags billowing in the wind. A city once proud now