Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1857-03-21
TIE LATE RAILROAD ACCIDENT IN CANADA

ment made by the conductor It left Toronto about four
o'clock and stopped at the Desardines Junction in order
allow train from Detroit pass. The Detroit train
was behind time forty fifty minutes, as it after
wards appeared and after waiting twenty minutes
the Toronto train becoming entitled to the road went
on About mile and quarter from Hamilton the road
crosses the Desardines canal bridge from fifty to
sixty feet above the water in the canal Just the
train geing upon the bridge broke down under
The weight of the locomotive and tender and the whole
train after car went the brink of the precpce
into the canal below which covered with thick ice
and where the water from fifteen eighteen feet in
depth. The catastrophe sudden and awful and the
work of death was instantaneous and complete So far
known only about twenty of those who the
train escaped and of those their escape to the
circumstance Of their having been in favorable positions
to jump off, The locomotive and tender were entirely
submerged, the baggage partially The forward
passenger turned bottom upward and sunk deep
that the floor was but few inches Shore water Every
soul on board this persisted. The passenger
rested upon end and was about half submerged
The cause of the accident was owing to the engine
having by got off the track just the train
approaching the bridge under diminished speed;
the wheels of the engine of cutting off the ties of
the bridge it advanced till the whole weight of engine
and tender falling heavily parted the string pieces The
bridge trestle bridge and it asserted by of
the passengers that it entirely too fragile str,c
ture originally It's entire floor down under the
weight that upon it. This accident is of the
destructive in its fatal effects of any that has
happened on the continent
FROM THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR, EXTRA, MARCH Is. /
national calamity may fairly be said to have befallen
US. Men who have stood in the foremost rank
CHI Hoor
merchants the most far-sghted, clergymen the most
earnest-have fell swoop been taken from among
u.s. The brain wanders and the pen almost refuses
do its accustomed duty when attempting to describe
the hear-rending scenes we have witnessed.
The train from Toronto due In this city at six o'clock
yesterday evening, had from Toronto usual
and proceeding at moderate rate of speed to pass
the swing bridge the Desjardines Canal Those
residing distance may not know that cutting has
been made as an outlet this canal through the Bur-
lingon Heights and that the railway it by
bridge sixty feet at least above the level of the
canal At this tme of course the water below is cover
ed with ice about two feet thick.
Just before the train reached the bridge the engine
off the track owing it is supposed to defect In the
axle. This, however is mere surmise, founded only
the observation of marks on the road for some
distance the other side of the spot where the accident
occurred The immense weight of the engine cutting
through the timber of the bridge produced the effect
urally to be expected. The whole structure gave way
and with rghtful crash the engine tender baggage
severed work. and leaped headlong into the yawn
ing abyss below The engine dtender crushed at once
through the ice. The baggage car stirling the corner
of the tender in the act of falling nrpwn to one
side and fell ten yards from the rlne The first
passenger car rushed AFTER and turning il descended
fell on its roof breaking partly through the e and
crushed atoms while the last fell endyays on the
ice and strange to say, remained IN that position
Ths 1sss of Lie s s ose w wae
have escaped only numbers abyuttwenty. AS far we
yet learn every in ting first killed those
who not crushed being drowned by the water which
of whom ten taken ou dead and most Of the others
fearfully mutilated. The engineer and fireman
under the ice with the locomotive and their bodies
have not yet been recovered.
The excitement in the city directly the news spread
intense. Hundreds swarmed towards the Great Western
depot and streamed along the line to the fatal spot
There the presented such to battle descrip
tion Large locomotive lamps were speedily brought;
fires were kinded and urid glare thrown the
shattered remnants Special trains dispatched
the bridge to bring home the wounded. 1t easy
task to descend the steep slope to the canal Ropes
were lowered and ladders attached to them, which
the dead and wounded from the which stood endways
first drawn up Then the bottom of the car which
had partly sunk through the ice hewn away with
and the unfortunate passengers, some sadly mutt
lated and cut in pieces, and all saturated with
ter, were taken out. Many worked with energy and
vigor; but who was that noble fellow that every
must have SEEM stripped his shirt sleeves standing
up to his middle in the freezing water, who himself
host, did than all the res We watched him long
from the height above he hewed away the fragments
and extricated the bodies. If ever deserved
ward it is he.
As soon as the dead were drawn up the slope they
either put in the for conveyance to Hamilton
were laid small house the bridge 1t is said
that family in the cars, consisting of father
mother and four children. Only of the children
escaped One of these little ones, GIRL about four
years of age brought into the house alluded to
when we were there The poor little creature smiling
prettily if she had been sleeping and dreaming of
sweet things when the accident occurred and had been
launched into the long sleep of death before the dream
had vanished from her mind.
At the railway depo, when the sufferers brought
in crowds assembled anxious to hear who was dead,
and to know if any of their friends there The
corpses were taken INFO of the large baggage rooms
where Coroners Bull dnd Rosebrugh proceeded to have
them examined and when possible, identified We give
below the list as COMPLETE as possible.
As soon the intelligence of the catastrophe reached
the city, Major Booker and Captain Macdonald's
panies of volunteer marched the and every
credit is due to th for their conduct The pressure
of the crowd had M but forced in the strong doors of
the depot when tH} artillery company arrived They
formed Gordon ar hnd the room which was respected
The rifles marched on to the bridge.
But few at time admitted to view the bodies
On entering the first remarked that of poor Dom
aid Stuart Several of those who have sat IN the City
Council with this estimabe were around him. and
tears This is stronger evidence of his worth than
any thing We could say Next lay the Brantford con-
tractor, Mr. RUSSELL whose person was money to the
amount of several thousand dollars in the row opposite
was Samuel Zimmerman, whom railways have at length
proved fatal andnear him two children aged and
three respectively, and she who seemed to be their
mother.
But we cease for the present In an account SO hur
riedly written some inaccuracies may occur The evil
dence to be given at the coroners inquest which will
doubtless be held to-day win establish the facts OF the
case with greater certainty than now narrate