If you understand a little history, you may know what happened in New York on October 29, 1929: known as Black Tuesday, that date was marked by the city's stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. 1930s and the worst period of the US economy.

Many people who lost fortunes overnight committed suicide that day, which was also marked by another tragedy: the flight of three elephants from a circus, including the star named Jumbo, who broke news and attracted a crowd that cornered Animals on the Brooklyn Bridge. In this they were startled and ran over everyone in an unprecedented tragedy!

Portrait of a tragedy?

“Wait, Mega! I know the history of the stock market crash, but I have never heard of that elephant thing, no ... ”, some thoughtful reader must be thinking. Well, that's a lie, in fact, but it has left many New Yorkers embarrassed as she won a memorial at Brooklyn Bridge Park with all the description of the event, including saying that Jumbo was the only three elephants to survive and end their days in New York. A sanctuary.

The author of the statue depicting animals trampling humans is sculptor Joe Reginella, who often mixes his art with fictional stories and leaves the crowd with a flea behind his ear. After all, a work with so many details of history should portray the truth, right?

Previously, Reginella had created another statue in honor of a tragedy - also invented - allegedly in 1963 when a Staten Island ferry boat in New York was pulled to the bottom of the sea by a giant octopus. In Reginella's story, 400 people would have succumbed to this catastrophe.

First monument created by Joe Reginella in honor of the fictional tragedy

The idea of ​​creating this kind of art came about when he made up the story of the octopus attack on his 11-year-old nephew, who kept asking if there were sharks in the Staten Island area. According to Reginella, the fun part of her works is noticing how gullible people are without questioning whether what they see is true.

The sculptor says that he occasionally sits anonymously near his sculptures to hear the reaction of the crowd. Most are surprised and complain that events “so great” are never reported. He, of course, laughs at it!

Elephant history, on the other hand, has a real drop: Jumbo did exist and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, but it didn't cause any tragedy! He and other animals from Barnum and Bailey's Circus, which landed at the Big Apple in 1884 with much festivity. Of course no one was injured on this crossing, which had 21 elephants, 7 camels and 10 dromedaries!

Drawing of the time shows how was the Elephant Parade