In 1916, New York City experienced the first large epidemic of polio, with over 9,000 cases and 2,343 deaths. The 1916 toll nationwide was 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths. Epidemics worsened during the century: in 1952, a record 57,628 cases of polio were reported in the United States. Polio (also called infantile paralysis) was most often associated with children, but it affected teens and grown-ups as well. Between 1949 and 1954, 35 percent of those who contracted polio were adults.
The first known polio outbreak in the United States was in Vermont in 1894. The last cases of wild (naturally occurring) polio in the United States were in 1979 in four states, among Amish residents who had refused vaccination.
Interesting; thank you for sharing!
During the 1918 flu epidemic, Camp Merritt along the NJ Palisades (overlooking the Hudson River and NYC) was a major transit point for troops, and the sickness spread from there (killing nearly 600 soldiers at the camp itself).