Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-12-29
BY CABLE.
A RAILWAY HORROR,
An Entire Train PreCipitated
Into a River.
All on Board, Over Three Hundred,
Supposed to be Lost.
A Midnight Plunge OF 80 Feet.
No Survivors to Tell the Terrible
Story.

LONDON, December 80, 10a.m.-
The Manager of the North British
railway, telegraphing from Luchars at
four o'clock this morning, says "Sey-
eral large girders, along with the last
train from Edingburgh were precipi-
tated into the river last night. There
were nearly three hundred passengers
besides the company's servants, all of
whom are believed perished."
A dispatch from Edinburgh, dated
at four this morning, says: "a por-
tion Of the bridge which fell consisted
of several large super-incumbent
girders at the central and navigable
portions of the river, which averages
from forty to forty-fve feet in
depth; the train would fall 50 feet be-
fore reaching water. Some time
elapsed before the nature of the dis j..
aster was ascertained. Damage to
wires on the bridge and banks and
bad weather interferred with the
transmission of news, and it is un-
knewn whether the girders were blown
down before the train entered the
bridge or we're carried away with it,
and it will probably never be ascer-
tanned, as there are no survivors.
The bridge was only open for traffic
in May, rs. 1t was considered the
triumph Of engineering skill. 1t was
about two miles long and had So spans,
the widest of which was 245 feet. AT
the highest it was 13O feet above high
water.
LATER.-The train left Edinburgh
at 4;15 in the afternoon. 1t consisted
of four third-class cars, one frst-class
and one second-class, and brakes
mans van. At the last station before
entering the bridge tickets were taken,
and the train was then crowded.
Vast quantities of wreckage, such
as doors and roofs of carriages, pieces
of the bridge and articles of wearing
apparel, are coming ashore. The
entire thirteen girders Of the long
central spans of the bridge are gone.
The night was one Outright moonlight
but the wind was blowing a hurri-
cane.
LATEsT--A dispatch from Dundee,
asserts that the number of lives lost
by the Tay bridge disaster does not
exceed ninety in all. The bodies of
six victims have been recovered.
A special from Dundee says "The
appalling catastrophe Of last evening
has thrown the city into state of
frantic excitement, and the neighbor-
hood of the fatal bridge is thronged
with hovror stricken visitors. Not one
soul escaped who was on the ill.fated
train. The gallantry of James Rob,
erts, the locomotive superintendent
of the North British railroad,
Of Dundee, and the station master,
Smith in venturing out on the bridge
is highly commended. In spite of the
fury of the gale, which rendered
the attempt doubly perilous, after IT,
mendous exertions, with their hands
lacorated by clinging to the rails for
dear life, they reached the edge of the
fatal gap"
Here they discovered that thirtee
girders, each 245 feet wide and weigh
ing $50 tons, all forming kind Of
tunnel in the middle Of tho
bridge, had been washed away,
nothing remained but the bare iron
piers; about one-third of the whole
structure had vanished. Thirteen
brick-york stnmps we're all that was
70 be seen in the midst Of the waves.
1t is positively asserted that three
hundred and fifteen people are lost.