Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1877-01-13
TIE ASlITABULA WRECK.
Incidents Narrated by Correspondents,
STORY OF THE ENGINEERS.

STORY OF THE ENGINEERS.
A reporter of the Cleveland Leader
was sent to Erie, Pa, to interview Daniel
Mcclure, engineer Of the leading loco
motive, the Socrates, which broke loose
from the train and escaped the fate Of
the other engine and cars. He is the
only unhurt man who saw the whole af-
fair, and under the most favorable Cir
cumstances. Mr.. Mcclure states that
his engine was ahead of the Columbia,
All stations between Erie and Ashtabula,
with the exception of three, were stopped
at. The train was running slow at tho
time of the accident. He felt the bridge
give way when two car lengths from the
west end. He felt it settle down. He
had his hand on the throttle, anti pulled
it wide open. The drawbar connecting
the engines was snapped by the sudden
jerk. The trucks Of his water tank did
not clear and settle down, but the open
ing wide the throttle saved the engine,
and the trucks were pulled on. He ran
up the track one hundred yards, and
gave the alarm by repeated whistles and
ringing of the bell. He saw the engine
Columbia sink with the bridge and turn
bottom upward. The express, baggage
and passenger cars followed in heap,
the passenger cars landing on the ex-
press cars. All went into the river. The
fire first broke out in the last sleeper,
which swung over to one side and was
soon in blaze. In two or three minutes
the entire wreck was a mass of flames.
The shrieks of the living and the groans
of the dying were terrible to hear but
their voices were soon hushed as the
flames embraced them. He further says:
81 was one of the first at the wreck. I
pulled several out of the ice, and helped
to extricate some from the debris. One
woman was pinned down by her legs on
burning car. Her cries for help wei
piteous, and in despair, as the flames
circled around her, she shrieked: "Tako
an ax and cut off my legs y But it was
impossible to reach her and she was con-
sumed. The paint on the burning cars
snapped like powder, soaring many work
men. 1 cannot estimate the number
burned, but think one hundred perished
by flame and water. Many were killed
outright. A husband and wife in the
burning wreck were held down by OBJ
structions, and calmly awaited their fate.
Their lips moved as if in prayer. Neither
pen nor tongue can describe the horror
of the scene. In twenty minutes after
the fire started it was impossible to ex-
tricate passengers.
The engineer of the Columbia, "Pop"
Folsom, of Cleveland, says his engine
turned bottom upward. He was thrown
violently through the window of the cab,
and was badly cut. Mcclure helped
pick him up, bruised and bleeding. His
first words were "Another Angola
horror, Dan." The rain was running at
the rate of ten miles an hour at the time.
The bridge was considered safe. Pas
senger train No. 8, with two engines,
had passed safely over it about seven
o'clock. His train struck the bridge at
9:32. He thinks frost and weather and
the heavy train snapped the bridge. Six
engines had tested the bridge without
it. At the time of the acci-
dent the storm was at its height. He
could not see two lengths ahead of his
engine, n,ld this rendered it next to i'm
possible to give immediate relief.
Mr.. Mcclure thinks no one would have
from the doomed train had not
his engine been saved, thus enabling
him to give the alarm. Terrible, in
deed, would it have been had the Socrates
gone over in the blinging, furious storm.
No one would have known of the disas-
ter, and the next train due at Ashtabula
would perhaps have shared the same
fate and been thrown into the river. He
had been in the service of the company
since 1852 and never saw such n storm
before
THE UNFORTUNATE BRIDGE.
The ravine at which the accident oc-
cured is of type peculiar to the southern
shore of Lake Erie The land along this
part of the lake generally rises for the
irst few miles from the water in n couple
1f gentle terraces, the inland borders of
which are marked by low ridges, which
constitute an original feature in Ohio
geology. They are termed the "lake
'idges and run pretty much from one
md of the State to the other, being in
'eality ancient beaches of Lake Erie.
The inner one of these ridges in Ashta-
)ula county rises to height of two hum
lred feet from the water of the lake.
The land is formed of clay, gravel and
hale, and the streams which come down
very few miles apart through this soil
ut deep channels.
The ravine at Ashtabula is very wide,
With steep banks seventy-five feet high.
t was originally crossed by wooden
restle-work bridge 700 feet long. After ,
his wooden structure was built the rail
oad company begun filling in with earth
t both ends of the bridge, and by this ,
rocess built out an embankment on ,
9th sides nearly to the shallow stream ,
hat ran through the middle of the ra- ,
inc. Eleven years ago the trestle
ridge across the stream was replaced by g
n iron bridge 157 feet long, sustained E
y Howe truss, with an arch $50 feet
, the span. 1t cost about $4,000. 1t
as tested at the time with the weight of