Washington telegraph., 1854-06-07
The Destruction of the Wheeling
l.fidge.

The Wheeling papers contain full aeeonnts
e the destruction If The suspension bridge
By the Storm Of "Wednesday. Il was erect.
e1 at eost Of Sl6OOOO. and the lo.stoihe
sioskhdller. Is therefore a serious Que. While
ihf uennycnirnccs 10 trade and iravel will
he somewhat feli fctfy boais. however.
have bsen already provided ~ that no ,cri.
eas detention will eeeur say' the Baltimore
sun, Of the 2Olh uli Mr. Ellinti. the eel
ebra,cl engineer, who built the lfidee-one
Of the gauAesi structures Of the kind. pro
bably, in the wofll-lcf Baltimore in tho
ears yesterday Tor Wheeling. aud no doubt
measures vii BE- taken at ouce for It's imme.
datc reconstruction
The tdi'ofuf the Wheeling Iatelleenccr.
Started about 3o'eloek on "Wednesday after.
mon 70 take walk acro.s the bridge. bn, af.
ter getting upon i, discovered that one Of the
guys or small iron cables extending from
the ilnor to the wall near the base II the
east abniment bad broken from il, a.icn.
ings, aud several III the stones were wrcnched
apart. About hundred yard. further IN
be- snw that one Of the ,usptndcrs 10 which
The ilJoF Is swung WIS broken These were
but slight damages, but as The wind was
blowing violent gale. aud the bridge began
to sway 10 and iro, be- rtlraced bis steps.
aud had been OF Of the Scoring but two
minutes when The alarm was given. and he
returned just in time 10 sec the whole siruc.
iurc Of cables and flooring hcnyng aud dash.
ing with trcmcndou, force The Inirlligcn.
Ger thus describes the scene that followed:
For a few moments We watched it with
breathlcss anxiety, luuging like ship in
the storm at one time il rose 10 nearly the
height Of the towers, then fell aud twisted
and writhed. and was dashed almost bottom
upward, At lat there seemed to be de-
lerminel twist along the enliro span. about
one.half Of the flooring being nearly rcvcrs-
ed and down went the immense structure
from H. dizzy height 10 the stream below.
with an appalling crash aud roar Nearly
the entire structure struck the water at the
same instant ,dashug upan uubrokcn column
OF foam across the river to the height Of at
least forty feet
All the cables, except two on the north
side are torn from the towers. On the south
side all the cables, except one small one. arc
torn from their anchorage in tue heavy ma.
sonry on Main street. aud with such violence
were they jcrkcd from this piece of mason.
ry, that one stone, weighing about 800
pounds, was thrown distance of fifty feet
The large iron gate, at the end of the bridge
was shlyered to altoms, and the toll.honse
completely demolished, Mr.. James Bcll,
the toll-keepcr, making narrow escape with
BIZ life.
On the island at the west end of the
bridge, We learn that but one cable broke
from the anchorage The entire wood
work lies in the river and on the shDrc.-
The cables also stretch across the river
and are sunk to the bottom. So far as
we can discover, only two Of the cable,
snapped assundcr aud that on the outside of
the towers, the rest Of the breaknge being
at their connections with the anchors.
The flooring as it struck the water was
broken into three sections, and extended
across the river, entirely bloekading the
channel for a while On the same evening
that portion across the channel was cut away
and removed by the steamer Thos. Swami.
so that the channel is now free for the pns.
sage Of boats Fortunately no lives were
lost by the accident. A number of persons
were waiting on each side of the river. at
tho time, for the wind to subsido, so that
they might cross,
The Gazette snys that several citizens of
Wheeling have alreody offered to make lib
oraI donations to aid in rebuilding the fallen
structure
ilcIGnr or CnAayy.-Unlacing young