The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-01
THE SCENE OF THE TRAGEDY.
Scenes on the Stairway and Promenade
The Cause of the Accident.

oCeueS OH tne stairway ana RrOmenad6-
The Cause of the Accident.
New York Special.
There were not so many on the bridge, but
they seemed inclined to loiter There would
be an open space of from fifty to one hun
dred feet, and then would come dense JAM
One of these jams formed at o'clock, a
short distance from the flight OF steps on the
New York anchorage. These steps are over
the point where the cables emerge from the
anchorage. They are fourteen feet broad
and in two flights of seven steps each,
broken by a landing eight feet across The
treads of the eteps are foot broad, and the
total rise OF the two flights is about nine
feet. The first jam formed in the narrow
pathway beyond the steps, A bridge police
man broke it up and started the line mov-
ing The crowd from Brooklyn
met the crowd from New York,
and jammed again at the foot of the
stairs. The Brooklyn crowd completely
covered the footpath above the stairs, and
the New YORK crowd covered it below the
stairs. The former attempted to push down
and the latter to push up. Those behind
pressed forward and the women and children
were thrust against the iron railing of the
steps and around the railroad track, which
begins at the head of the steps. They began
to screm with pain and terror. Somebody
shouted that there was danger, and the i'm
preston prevailed that the bridge was giving
way. At that the crowd on the board walk
above the steps pressed on toward New York
more furiously, while those below on the
nc hal mo hnU ufn in 1a., i
did not move. A woman held her baby over
the trestle-work and begged some one
to take it. Men climbed out on
the trestle- work and down 20 the rail
road tracks outside. The bridge men
on the south roadway laid planks from the
roadbed to the footpath below the stairs.
They did this on both sides of the footpath
and removed the section of iron fence near
est the steps. They pulled out women from
the jam and helped people down the planks
This gave the Brooklyn crowd chance to
move, and it surged forward few feet The
bridge officers ran along the string-pieces of
the trestlework and turned back to Brook
lyn those who were on the south side of the
path. But as soon as the officers passed by,
these people forced around again. Nobody
expected the tragedy that was coming. A
half dozen rough-lookng men punched
themselves together some 300 feet above the
stairs. They laid hands on each others
SDOulueTS anu lOTCeQ themselves IlkG q
wedge into the crowd ahead They shouted
out: ''The - association can make its way
through anything"
In the fierce struggle that followed woman
fell, and instantly there was great heap of
humanity piled mp. Cries, shrieks, yells and
groans filled the air at the stairway. while
those on the promenade above yelled and
shouted as they were pushed forward, and
rolled and tumbled over the poor unfortu-
mates who were being crushed and trampled
to death beneath them. The scene was inde-
scribable. 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, scrambling off
as best they could. One man leaped high in
the air, fell forward at the lower end of the
human mass, picked himself up and ran like
a mailman to the Chatham street entrance,
where he disappeared in the street.
The jam was terrific, Everybod pressed
forward to see what had taken place Women
and children we're 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 ten young
rowdies from New York elbowed 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 railway tracks and fell to the house
tops and streets below in showers Canes