Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1880-01-29
An Eye Witness Account Of the Tay
Bridge Horror.

So little is known about the terrible
railroad disaster in Scotland that the
following account of an eyewitness pub
lished in the London Telegraph, will be
read with more than usual interest:
Enjoying the cosy comforts of my own
parlor fireside on Sunday night, | lis
tened to the fierce clamor of the storm
without and felt deep sense of graft
tude for the security possessed, min
gled with a feeling of compassion for
the poor sailors on the sea battling with
the storm. The children had gathered
round me for their usual Bible stories,
and with an instructive sense of fear
they nestled close to my side as they
heard the wild efforts of the blast to bat
ter in the easement of the window.
chose the story OF St Paul's shipwreck
on the island of Melita, thinking that
the storm without might help me to i'm
press upon their young minds the ter
ri5le nature Of the dangers to which the
Apostle was exposed as the ship lay rid
ing helplessly upon the waves with four
anchors between it and certain destruc-
ton. While thus engaged blast of
wind, more furious than before, had
caught the chimney-tops Of a house
almost opposite my parlor windows, and
brought them down to the ground with
laundering crash that startled every
one of us to our feet. Stepping over the
easement | gazed out upon the street,
and just then a blaze of moonlight lighted
up the broad expanse CT the Tay down
below, and the long, white sinuous line
of the Tay bridge came into view. l
looked at my watch and saw that
it was exactly seven o'clock. The
| exclaimed to my wife; g come and let
us watch to see if it will attempt to cross
on such a night.o So saying we turned
down the gas in the parlor and prepared
to await the coming of the train. The
light by this time had become most fit
full. Great masses ofclouds were sweep
ing across the expanse of the heavens.
at times totally obscuring the light of
the full moon "There she comes, cried
one of the children, and, at that moment,
the slowly moving lights of The Edin-
burg train could be distinctly seen round
ing the curve at Wormit. and passing
the signal box at the south side, enter
ing upon the long straight line of that
portion of the bridge. The train once
on the bridge seemed to move along
with greater swiftness, and when the
engine entered the tunnel-like clOisters
of the great girders my little girl exactly
described the effect of the lights as seen
through the lattice-work when she ex-
claimed, Look, papa, isn't that like
ightning?" All this takes some time
to write down, but to the eye it seemed
as if almost simultaneous with the en-
trance of the train upon the bridge A
comet like burst of fiery sparks sprang
out as if forcibly elected into the dark
ness from the engine In long visible
train the streak of fire was seen till
quenehed in the water below. Then
there was absolute darkness on the
bridge. A silence fell upon our eager
group at the window. Then, with stun
Ming force the idea broke upon my mind
HeavensF' cried. g fear the train is
over the bridget" With agrowing hor-
ror watched the curve at the north
side to try if [ could see the train pass
at that goint, but as several minutes
passed and no moving object broke the
continuity of the bridge at that point,
snatched up my hat and hurried down
and across the Magdalen Green, to meet
several individuals all bent upon the
same errand as myself.