St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-01-30
VOLUME 43---NUMBER 2218.

nor any cry of distress, but sea was
running that no boat could then have
lived in, had he supposed there was
any reason for launching one.
What had happened nobody knows.
There are two theories. According to
one the force of the wind had driven
rails, and it had smOte against the
framework of the bridge with force
enough to wrench some main girder
from its connecting beams, and so the
whole structure had fallen in pieces.
According to the second, the force of
the wind had been sufficient to sweep
away bridge and train together; and
this theory, believe, is that which the
engineering mind is disposed to accept.
There have always been, hear, peO
pie who shook their heads over the con-
struction of the work. There was too
much cast iron in it, say some. Its eX-
treme narrOwness was one of its most
striking features. From motives of
economy, it was built to carry only Il
single line of rails; and its width did
not exceed fifteen feet, while its height
in the central portion above the water
was one hundred and thirty feet.
was told to-day that great firm to
whom the contract for the bridge was
first proffered declined it ON this very
ground. They did not believe a bridge
could be built of these dimensions 1.-TWO
miles long by fifteen feet broad and
one hundred and thirty feet high
which could be safe in such situation.
About the two shore ends they had no
difficulty, but out of the two miles of
the entire length the middle was the
part where dangers of many kinds had
to be guarded against. This central
portion extended for 5000 feet, and
was composed of girders, forming 13
spans of 245 feet each and % feet in
height above the piers on which they
rest. The rails were laid on the bot
tom of these central girders, and the
sides formed kind of lattice work
from the interlacing of the rods and
beams; being purposely left open so
that there should be less surface to offer
resistance to the wind. Practically,
these 5000 feet of central structure
formed tunnel through which the
train passed. But when the train pass
ed, the interstices left for the free rush
of the wind were momentarily filled up,
and the side of the bridge, for the
length and height of the train, became
solid. The leverage on the supporting
columns and braces was enormous; the
strength which sufficed for ordinary
weather proved unequal to the stress ol
this terrible gale and the whole mass
piers, girders, engine, carriages, and d
hundred human beings toppled ovel
together into the furious flood beneath
Not one human being escaped. 1t is
this completeness of the catastrophe
which makes it so tragic. No one haC
any more chance of coming out alive
than if the earth had opened and swal
lowed it up. The speed was probably
about twenty-five miles an hour. Al
the moment of the collapse the traiI
was i'll an iron cage; and the train auC
cage together were precipitated more
than one hundred feet sheer down into
Il raging stream thirty feet deep. Fol
little while the people on the Dundee
side who waited for the coming over OF
the train, and who knew that some
thing had happened because it did not
come, fancied that the driver might
have pulled up before the bridge went
down. Two or three men started to
walk over to see, but came back in a
panic at the fury of the tempest All
they could make out was that part of
the bridge was gone, but nobody knew
positively that the train had gone with
the bridge until some of the mail bags
had been washed ashore some miles
away. The crowds who swarmed into
the Dundee station on the first rumor
of an accident-the husbands and
wives, brothers and sisters, relatives
and friends of the passengers-were
kept for hours in suspense by what one
paper calls the judieious silence of the
railway officials, by what | should call
the cruel callousness common to the
official mind on such occasions. So
fierce was the storm that all commuui-
cation between the opposite shores was
suspended. No steamer dared leave
port. By and by one came over from
Newport to Dundee, and the gale hav-
ing abated, the Provost, the harbor-
master, the railway people, and some
citizens of Dundee, embarked on a vow
age of discovery at about 10 o'clock.
AS they reached the bridge the moon
came out, and by her light they first
saw the CHASTITY rent in the bridge
5000 feet cut clean out of it by the
storm. A boat pulled through, but
nothing could be seen of the wreck
save huge girder or two. The Tay
had swallowed the whole, and down to
this moment, two days afterward, but
one body has been recovered. Divers
have been down, but they came up
again with the report that nothing can
be seen of the wrecked carriages.
There are quicksands all about and it
is doubtful whether anything will ever
be seen, except the bits of splntered
wood, and various waif and strays
which are floating from hour to hour
London Cor. N. Y. Tribune.