The daily gazette., 1883-05-31
VICTIMS CRUSHED TO DEATH,
Men Women and Children Crowded To-
gother in an Awful Heap-Heartrendine
Scenes and Incidents.

l
In crush that occurred apparently by acci
dent on the New York anchorage q mum
Der OF persons, mostly women and children
were crushed, some to death, some fatally
and still others severely. A scene of terrol
reigned for fully Is or 20 minutes tba
battles description. Wien it was over, cart
loads OF wounded and crushed human
beings were taken out of the New York en-.
trance of the bridge. A small mountain Of
torn and abandoned clothing was gathered
up by the police.
HOW THE DISASTER OCCURRED.
The accident occurred on the New York
anchorage, where the solid bottom of the
middle footway ends and two fights of seven
steps each, with an intermediate landing,
led up to the plank walk of the span between
the New York anchorage and tower. It was
shortly after O'Clock. The bridge was
crowded from one end to the other so that
thre was hardly elbow room on the foot
way. A woman, who was ascending the
| lower flight of steps, stumbled and fell on
the landing. The crowd pressed upon her
and she shrieked. Bridge Officer Frederick
Richards, who was on the plank walk above,
seeing her danger, elbowed his way to the
spot and lifted her up. The crowd closed
upon them both, and they went down.
With desperate effort Officer Richards got
upon his feet once more dragging the
woman after him. She screamed again
in despair and fright and the crowd above
and below pressed towards the spot
TO discover the cause of the commotion.
The crush immt diately became fearful.
Those on the approach below the steps were
carried forward in solid mass. MANY
stumbled and unable to resist the pressure
from behind the crowd passed over them.
From above the crowd coming from Brook
a q fod 10 fhO l..,.~ e Al.
then fell over and down upon the strug
Cling mass below. A terrible struggle for
life began. Men and women fought with
the strength OF despair against each other.
Escape was impossible with the pressure
from both sides growing at every shout of
anguish that went up from the diving and
those who saw death before their eyes. Fear
and despair on the one side, curiosity on the
other, fought for the mastery.
FRIGHTFUL SCENE.
The frightful crush was denser than ever.
when, after nearly Is minutes, a score of
militiamen of the Twelfth Regiment, led by
Lieutenant Hart and Sergeants Conldock
and Costello, marched up the approach to-
ward Brooklyn. The yells of the crowd at
tracted their attention. At the foot of the
steps wall of human bodies was piled high.
The dense mass surged about it, and in it
the soldiers saw two policemen vainly
struggling against it. Sergeant Couldock
took In the situation at a glance. At his
word of command his men scaled the fence
and railroad track, separating them from
the footwalk, and wedging into the mass of
people near the scene of the disaster, drove
back the crowd at the New York entrance
at the muzzles of their guns. 1t fell back
signify and the militiamen following up the
advantage gained, forced it back until the
approach was cleared. Then forming front
across the footwalk they prevented the |
crowd from passing back, while as many of |
their number as could be spared ran toward |
the scene OF the accident to help In extri- |
eating the dead and saving the living.
EXTRICATING THE DEAD AND INJURED
The alarm had meanwhile been given at |
the bridge entrance. A general call for all |
hospital ambulances were sent out and DO
licemen were hurried over upon the bridge.
From their station beside the City Hall fire.
men OF hook and ladder company followed
to assist. They found the situation still un-
altered on the bridge. The crowd on the
foot-walk above the steps was constantly re-
ceiving accessions and still pressing on and
over the heap on the anchorage. The bodies
of the dead and dying lay here SO firmly |
wedged together that to extrcate them was
next to impossible. To beat back the crowd |
was equally impossible. Relief was possible |
only by making room for the crowd to |
spread sideways. 1t was quickly done.
willing hands tore away the iron railing d. |
Viding the t1oatway from the railroad track |
on both sides, and dragged those who were |
nearest in the crush through the opening.
1t helped. Room was made for the police |
men to reach the frightful heap of human |
beings, and the work of clearing 1t away be- |
gan. As soon as portion of the obstruc-
ton was removed from the steps the crowd |
was eased, and portion was let through to |
the New York station. The rest was forced
back until all the bodies had been taken
away. Then it was let through, and body
of policemen at the point of danger kept it
from pressing there.
Along the iron fences on the footway, on
the railroad track and on the carriage way
on both sides Of the bridge the dead and
wounded were laid. More than half score
were dead when extricated from the throb-
bing heap. Others were more or less terri
bly, injured. They lay six or eight or ten
deep, those in the lower tier long dead The
clothes were torn from the body of more
than one in the attempt to get them out.
All were hatless, many shoeless, and on
Others the clothes hung In rags. Five women
all dead, and trampled into an unshap ly
mass, were taken from the bottom of the
heap. One of them had been seen in the
crush holding screaming baby above the
heads of the crowd. AS she herself went
down, some man had taken the baby; it was
not found.
1t was said that a man had been seen car
rying dead baby away, but the police had
no account of it. Baby cl thing scattered
about gave evidence enough that weak in
fants had been in the crush. The woman
whom bridge officer Richards had helped to
her feet at the beginning of the crush was
saved. Richards also escaped death by des-
perate efforts
In speaking of the occurrence afterwards,
Richards said that there was no chance Of
restoring order from the first. That one
first scream was the death-knell of many in
that crowd. 1t grew at once utterly ungoy-
ernable and so dense that movement of any
kind was impossible. The crowd forced by
the constant pressure aid accession from
the Brooklyn side went over the steps like
cataract, and once started fell until the
walk lay piled with bodies to the height of
the steps, then went over and fell down be-
yond it.
A dead Chinaman, All Lo Sing, was taken
from the bottom OF the heap. Carts were
pressed into service at the New York side as
they arrived, and the dead and injured were
hurridly driven out to the City Hall, where
tn y were laid in the police station in the
basement, Ambulances then arrived, and
those who yet breatbed were taken to the
hospitals. Crowds of people besieged the
station and ambulanees to learn the fate of
missing ones dear to them. There were
heartrending scenes at the police stations
when body was recognized by friends.