Soaring gasoline prices, rising unemployment, higher food costs and the mortgage crisis are making Americans nervous about the nation's economic future.

Ramifications of economic shifts usually are seen better in hindsight, however. Even the significance of the Oct. 29, 1929, stock-market crash that ushered in the Great Depression of the 1930s was not apparent immediately to many who lived through it.

In Richmond and elsewhere, Wall Street's infamous "Black Tuesday" was viewed by most people in 1929 as a temporary setback, one that could be fixed with a business-as-usual approach. No one in Richmond jumped out of a window the day after the crash. In fact, cautious optimism prevailed.

The crash came with little warning. Like nearly everything else in America of the 1920s, the bull market roared like a lion. Stock prices rose steadily for the five years preceding the crash. Banks reaped huge profits by using customer deposits to invest in the market. The euphoria on Wall Street peaked in September 1929 when the Dow Jones industrial average reached a record high of 381.17.

In October, the bubble began showing signs of bursting as the market grew erratic. A month of sporadic decline gained momentum in the last hour of trading on Oct. 23. The next day's market report by the Richmond brokerage firm Branch, Cabell & Co. urged caution: "The speculative excesses of more than three years can hardly be corrected in a month," the firm warned local investors.

A record 12.9 million shares were traded Oct. 24, a day that became known on Wall Street as "Black Thursday." On Oct. 29, "Black Tuesday," the crash came with a new record of 16.4 million shares sold, most dumped without regard to price.

The day of the crash, The Richmond News Leader's editorial pages tried to give perspective. "America still has a great surplus of wealth, a great store of money that will continue to flow into the stores, and into the stock market," one editorial said. "The present period of uncertainty is not apt to last very long."

That night, Richmond brokers stayed in their offices tallying the damage to clients' accounts. But the reaction remained subdued. "Local Brokers Believe Worst Over In Stock Market Storm," a front-page headline of the Oct. 30 Richmond Times-Dispatch said.

"While numerous Richmonders were dealt staggering losses," the report said, "local brokerage houses last night professed to believe that Richmond had suffered less curtailed buying power than many other cities."

One broker said the market had dropped for reasons unrelated to the economy. "Psychology, mental fear, causes the tumbling of prices," he told The Times-Dispatch. "Business is good and money is cheap."

Richmond businessmen told The News Leader that if the crash ended the wild speculation that had dominated the market, it would help the local economy. "The break," explained a banker, "will have the effect of keeping money at home and will result beneficially in time."

Department store president W.S. Rhoads said, "This will not have any appreciable effect on business." Richmond Chamber of Commerce Director Mason Manghum predicted, "We will recover quickly."

An Oct. 31 News Leader editorial continued the optimistic tone. "The economic effects of the current decline are not apt to be very serious," it said. "The banks have not been shaken in the slightest."

That soon changed as banks unable to refund customer deposits closed their doors.

The market did not reach bottom until the Great Depression had the nation in a stranglehold. The Dow Jones industrial average hit a low of 41.22 on July 8, 1932. It did not surpass its 1929 high until 1954.

On the first anniversary of the 1929 crash, a News Leader editorial recalled the dark day: "The wonder today, in retrospection, is not that the structure fell, but that men ever believed it would stand."