Dead Presidents: DC Stinks

Washington, DC is a city built on a swamp. As the city slowly limped into modernity, utilities such as plumbing were slow to develop. Poor sewage drainage contaminated drinking water, imperiling the lives of several U.S. Presidents & their families. Inaugural Address Length | Presidents of the United States (POTUS) Historic Meanings of “Cholera” – Contagions Polk, Exhausted, Says He's Feeling Better Now That He's Out of Office, Then Dies a Month Later - May 9, 1849 Typhoid Fever and Paratyphoid Fever | CDC "Death in the White House: President William Henry Harrison's Atypical Pneumonia" | Death in the White House: President William Henry Harrison's Atypical Pneumonia Jane McHugh, Philip A. Mackowiak Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 59, Issue 7, 1 October 2014, Pages 990–995 "Attack of the Killer White House – Did the White House itself lead to the death of several 19th century Presidents?" — History is Now Magazine, Podcasts, Blog and Books | Modern International and American history The Death of James K. Polk - James K. Polk Museum. Columbia, TN Zachary Taylor: Death of the President | Miller Center "Age at Inauguration" | Presidents of the United States (POTUS) "Killer in the White House" | The Saturday Evening Post by Chris Wakefield and Troy Brownfield, April 23, 2019 Looking Back: “The insidious foe”—sewer gas - PMC "What Really Killed William Henry Harrison?" By Jane McHugh and Philip A. Mackowiak New York Times March 31, 2014 Become an official Morbuddy: patreon.com/themorbidmuseum Follow us on IG: @themorbidmuseum Email us at themorbidmuseum@gmail.com Artwork: Brittany Schall Music: "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by Kevin MacLeod