The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-06-08
EAST RIVER BRIDGE TRAGEDY.
Details of the Panic by Which Mnny Lives
Were Lost.

Details of the Panic by Which Many Lives
Were Lost.
Details of the horrible tragedy on the
newly opened East River bridge-caused by
q blockade at one of the stairways, followed
by a panic which resulted in the death of
twelve persons and injuries to many more
are as follows;
Thousands of people we're coming over
from Brooklyn, returning from the ceme-
teries where soldiers graves had been decor
ated, or taking advantage of the holiday TO
see the bridge. A jam formed at 4 O'Clock
q short distance above the fight of steps on
the New York anchorage. The steps are
fourteen feet broad, and in two flights of
seven steps each, broken by a landing eight
feet across. The treads of the steps are a
foot broad and the total rise of the two flights
of steps il about nine feet. The first
jam formed in the narrowed pathway
beyond the sters. Bridge Policeman Fred
erick Richards broke it up and started the
line moving again. The crowd from Brook
Ign met the crowd from New York, and
jammed again at the foot of the stairs. The
Brooklyn crowd completely covered the foot
path above the steps, and the New York
crowd covered it below the STEPS. The
former attempted TO push down and
the latter to push up. Those behind
pressed forward. and the weakest-the
women and children-were thrust against
the iron railing of the steps and against the
iron tres;lework which surrounds tie rail
road track, and which begins at the head of
the steps. They screamed with pain and
terror.
Some body shouted out that there was
danger. and the impression prevailed that
the bridge was giving way beneath the
crowd. At that the crowd on the board walk
above the steps pressed on toward New York
more furiously, while those below who were
on the asphalt knew they were in no
danger, and did not move. A
woman held her baby over the tres
tlework and begged some one to take it.
Men climbed out on the trestlework and
down to the railroad tracks outside. The
bridge men who we're stationed along the
south roadway procured planks and laid
them from the railroad led to the footpath
below the stairs. They did this on both
sides of the pootpath, and emoved the sec
ton of iron fence that was nearest the steps.
They pulled out women from tie jam and
helped people down the planks.
This gave the Brooklyn crowd a chance to
move, and it surged ahead for a few feet.
Bridge officers ran along on the string
piece of The trestle work and turned back
toward Brooklyn those who were on the
south side of the path. But as soon as
the officers had passed by these people
faced round again. Nobody among
them or mong the thousands pressing
on them from behind suspected the Iiagei y
hat was coming. A half dozen ro1gh-look-
ing young men bun ,hed themselves together
some three hundred feet above the stairs.
They lad their hands on each others sheul-
ders and forced Themselves like a wedge into
the crowd ahead. They shouted out: "1he
- Association can make its way through
anything"
Either the = r pushing, or the general push
ing toward New York, thrust the crowd
ahead too rapidly. They were pushed in
spite of themselves toward the steps. They
eaarpa1 70 hnya n bnrrnr of froinp ayar tho
steps, although the flight is only five or six
feet high. They locke arms, and pushed
furiously back against the thousands COM
ing ste idly over from Brooklyn. In n
few minutes. at the point just above the
steps, there was a slow yielding to the fright
full pressure from behind, end the front Of
the crowd was forced nearer and nearer to
the edge. Women and children were scream.
ing for help, and men were shouting con.
fusedly. Umbrellas. parcels and canes were
thrown over the rails at the side by people
who needed their hands t. fight their way
out of the desperate crush.
At last. with a single shrek thai cut
through the clamor of the thousands OF
voices. a yOurg girl lost her footing and fell
dowu the lower flight of steps. She lay fol
a moment, and then raised herself on her
hands, and would have got up. But in an
other moment she was buried under the bod
les of others who fell over the steps afte,
her. She was dead when they got her out,
more IMAM nhlI an nOur ulterWHru. Mel
sprang upon the rails at the side and wa" ed
the crowds back from both the New York
and Brooklyn sides. But the people con-
tinued to surge toward the steps. NO police
were in sight. Men in the crowd lifted
their children above t"eir heads to save
them from the crush. People were still pay
ing their pennies at both gates and swarm
ing in.
The two extemporized side exits by way of
planks to the railway were insufficient to re-
lieve the crush, and the result was that all
those who fell could not be reached. The
people advancing from Brooklyn continued
to fall over those in front until they were
piled in a struggling, suffocating mass at the
foot of the lower stairs and on the landing
between the flights. Bridge officers attempt
ed 10 reach them, but were kept back by the
still Advancing throng. Policeman Began
forced his way to the head of the stairs and
threatened and clubbed till he had forced a
way through and tunnel many back.
At last the people AT the New York end of
the bridge understood what was happening.
The gates were closed and word was sent to
close the gates in Brooklyn. Messengers
were sent to the police station in Oak street.
The police joined the bridge officers in
clearing a little space about the foot of the
steps and in dragging to one side from
the mass of bodies the dead and the
dying. Some crawled out by them
selves. A company of tine Twelfth New
York regiment worked hard at dragging
them out. Twenty-Five seemed to be nearly
dead. They were laid along on the north
and south sides of the pathway, and the peo-
pie from Brooklyn passed on between them.
Men and women turned faint at the sight of
the swollen and blood-stained faces of the
dead. Foul men, a lad. six women, and a
girl of fifteen were quite dead, or died in a
few moments. They had been found at the
bottom of the heap.
The police stopped grocers' wagons COM
ing from Brooklyn, and carrying the bodies
of the wounded and dying down the planks
to the railroad, laid them in the wagons,
and told the drivers to hurry to the Cham
beers Street hospital. Six bodies were
laid in one wagon. The drivers whipped
up their horses and drove with
full speed to the hospital.
Beside the dead about forty persons were in
juIel, none so severely that they are not ex-
pected to recover. News of the disaster