History in Garfield Ridge

John Wentworth (1815-1888) was a two-term Mayor of Chicago and six-term member of the U.S. House Of Representatives.  He stood 6’ 6’’ tall and weighed more than 300 pounds.  A Republican and personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, he served as editor of the city’s first newspaper, The Chicago Democrat.  In his later years, he lived on his country estate at 5441 South Harlem Avenue, which today occupies a portion of the Garfield Ridge neighborhood. 

Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 was arriving at Chicago Midway from Baltimore-Washington Airport when it slid off a runway during a snowstorm on Thursday, December 8, 2005, crashed into traffic, injured several people, and killed a six year-old boy.  Shortly after 7:15 p.m., the Boeing 737-700 crashed into the barrier surrounding the airport and rolled to a stop on South Central Avenue, just south of 55th Street.  The intersection was filled with cars.  Six year-old Joshua Woods was killed, but his parents and two younger brothers survived.  Their car was crushed under the nose of the plane.  Four people in a second car (which ended up under one of the wings) were also seriously injured.  A few people on the plane were slightly injured.  All 98 airline passengers and all five crew members exited on the inflatable slides or the rear stairway.  The crash occurred 33 years to the day after the crash of United Airlines Flight 553, also at Midway Airport.