Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-06-01
DREADFUL DISASTER on THE
BROOKLYN BRTDGE.


room for the passage Of pageant.
DREADFUL DISASTER on THE
BROOKLTN BRTDGE.
Twelve Persons KILLED and Thirty.
five WOunded---One Woman's Misstep
Follow eel by AnOther's Scream Leads
60 a Terrible Calamity.
woman fell down the wooden steps at
the end of the New York approach to the
Brooklyn bridge Wednesday afternoon while
the pathway was crowded with thousands of
men, women and children walking and pass
ing one another As she lost her footing an
other woman screamed, and tho throng be-
hind crowded forward 30 rapidly that those
at the top of the steps were pushed over and
fell in heap. Those following were in turn
pushed over and in moment the narrow
stairway was choked with human beings,
piled one on top Of the other, who were be-
ing crushed to death In a few minutes ~
persons were killed, injured so seriously
that their lives are despaired Of and % others
more or less severely wounded Many per-
sons received slight injuries. The hour of
the accident was little past 1 o'clock Its
scene was on the New York anchorage where
the solid bottom Of the middle footway ends
and two flights of seven steps each, with an
intermediate landing, lead up to the plank
chorage and the tower
There had been thousands OF persons on
the bridge all day, but Mt no time had there
been anything like a crush. At the moment
the accident happened the crowd at the stair.
way at the end of the New York approach
who were coming toward the city met SINH.
lar crowd pushing along in an opposite drec-
ton. As the two tbrongs met there was an
interruption in the movement, while those
fprNbnr lra, pHrup,rltpf, f,r ii
ing dense mass of men, women and child.
rem Mt the stairway.
The top of the iron fence on each side of
the stairway forms hand.rail The stairs
are too narrow. As nearly as could be ascer-
tanned from the excited persons who were in
the throng or saw it, the crowd was Just get
ting disentangled when middle-aged woman
coming down the steps toward New York,
lost her footing and fell. bridge police
man who was standing near the head of the
stairs, saw the woman fall and spraug to her
assistance She fell on her knees on the cen.
tire landing of the stairway Just as the police
man reached her. Tho officer caught hold
of her arm and pulled her down the remain.
der of the stairs aud to one side. At the
same moment a woman at the head Of the
stairway, seeing the officer dragging some
body through the crowd, began to scream Mt
the top of her voice. Then those behind
lnbQe rush FORWARD 10 see what the trouble
was. Those on the stairway could not hold
back the throng, and in an instant three or
four persons were carried of their feet and
fell Those on the promenade above the
stairway, knowing nothing of the fearful
crush on the steps, surged ahead with ire
sistible force, and in moment the whole
stairway was packed with dead and dying
men, women, and children, piled one upon
another in a writhing, struggling mass.
Cries. shrieks, yells and groans filled the air
at the stairway, while those on the prone.
made above yelled and shouted as they were
pushed forward and rolled and tumblcd over
the poor unfortunates who we're being crush
ed and trampled to death beneath them. The
scene was indescribable. Children were torn
from the arms of their parents, and men
sprang on the backs Of those in front of them
and fought their way over the mass of heads
and scrambled off as best they could.
The jam was terrific. Everybody pressed
forward to see what had taken place. Women
and children were crushed together. They
cried and shrieked and begged to be released
A stout woman who was pressed against the
iron railing at one side appealed piteously to
be taken out. A band of about 10 young
rowdes from New York eibowed their way
about, picking pockets and grabbing every
thing that they could secure. Their presence
added much to the panic. Hats went over
into the railroad tracks and fell to the house.
tops and streets below in showers. Canes
and umbrellas were broken, shawls were torn
from women's shoulders and wells from their
faces and trampled under foot. Gloves and
handkerchiefs were lost by the score and
could not be picked up again. In the crush
much jewelry was torn from its fastenings and
ground to.pieces under the heels of the mass
One man reached the side of the promenade
and pulled himself up by the bridge suspend
ers to the top of the iron framework over
the railroad structure. Thence he gained &C.
cess to the roadway, which was not obstruct-
ed. One young man was climbing up the
framework when his foot caught in an open
ing. The swaying crowd pressed against
him, and his leg was SO badly wrenched that
he could scarcely walk.
Carts and grocers wagons were pressed into
service on the New York side, and the dead
and injured were hurriedly driven out to the
city hall where they were laid in the police
station in the basement. Ambulances then
arrived and those who yet breathod were tax
en- to the hospitals. The dead that were
pulled out from underneath the human ava.
lanche on the anchorage were black in the
face showing that they had died from sufTo-
cation. A crowd of roughs pressed on be-
hind the crowd coming from Brooklyn, and
fought their way through it with oaths and
rbadry, and over the bodies of the dead.
When the approach was cleared at last, it was
literally covered with articles Of clothing and
personal property abandoned in the struggle.
They were viewed with amazement by the
people coming over from Brooklyn, who had
not heard of the disaster. In the excitement
of the crush William Oxford, aged 20, a
drunken man, deliberately jumped from the
bridge approach into William street, and re-
ceived severe internal injuries and external
bruises. The place on the bridge where the
accident occurred is the danger spot of the
structure. To persons who are looking out
over the scenery, as they pass either way, it
is a most perilous trap. In the first excite
ment wild stories went out that something
had given way about the bridge which caused
the panic, and it was even wildly rumored the
bridge had gone down