Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-06-06
The Bridge Accident.

That there is really any new thing
under the sun was disputed years ago but
there are plenty of things that to all
intents and purposes are new enough
They may be new forms developed from
older but they get so far away from their
ancestors that folks do not recognize the
family connection.
The railroad. the telegraph, the tele-
phone and the Brooklyn bridge are just as
good as new for this century. And like
some bad and hurtful things. such as
diphtheria among diseases, it takes sharp
er eyes to tell the old things Of which
they are new manifestations, than ordinary
people have. But these inventions bring
with them attendant shadows that strike
folks as being as strange as the thing
invented
We have become accustomed to hearing
Of the blowing up Of steam boats and the
wreck of railroad trains, and to the
curious and deadly accidents that followed
the lines of wire till now in many places
the placing of telegraph wires under
ground is insisted on.
But when less than two weeks ago the
great triumph of engineering skill, brought
about by the sick man Roebling and his
wife, the Brooklyn bridge, was opened to
public travel there was no thought of the
real danger that followed success. II
anybody thought there was to be trouble
he imagined that it was because the bridge
would not do its work, that it was too
weak or would soon become so from the
nature of its materials.
The bridge was opened for public travel
the 9th of May and it had not been
in use week before a calamity came that
killed twelve persons and manned many
more. The trouble was not with the
bridge but with the men and women who
were upon it. woman fell at the stairs
leading up the entrance from New York
She cried out; people did not know what
the trouble was, and in moment people
got the idea that the bridge was giving
way.
This idea was what made the crowd
panc-struck so that they began rushing
down the stairway till it was blocked by
corpses and crushed bodies. 1t was the
unreasoning fright of crowd that caused
the deaths.
They are holding an examination now
Of the circumstances of the accident and
will try and guard against like dangers in
the future. But it is not at all probable
that anything can ever be invented that
will insure big crowd against a panic.
The bridge ways may be fixed so that
folks can have their panic out without
injury on that particular spot. And per-
haps this is the last of loss of life from
panics in that particular place.
But the accident was good illustration
that each new thing brings its own set Of
dangers. The bridge was safe enough but
it brought a lot of folks into a position
where by fright they were dangerous to
each other. 1t was not quite such a panic
as swept our army away from Bull Run
but it was off the same piece. Bridges
may be new but the folks who use
them are the same old kind of human |
beings who have peopled the earth for
hundreds of years. So the accident was
pretty old form of trouble after all and |
the seeming newness of its kind is not
real.
The use of the bridge is not interfered
with by the calamity and it promises to
Justify its existence by great usefulness to
the inhabitants of the two great cities that
it binds together.