St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-04-08
THE FLOOD.
Damage by Water and Ice in this Vi
cinity.


The washouts in this vicinity last
week proved more serious than was at
first apparent. The ice went out of
the Passumpsic at Paddock village be-
tween eight and nine O'Clock Thursday
morning. 1t required pretty careful
management to save the small bridge
at the pump house but finally the ice
passed down and the danger was over
at that point.
Opposite George Barker's about half
a mile this side of Passumpsic, the ice
last freshet in January had never fully
cleared away. When the ice came
down last week it blocked the channel
up completely whore the river turns to
the west, and the water rose rapidly
until the railroad track was complete
ly submerged and the river made for
itself a new channel striking across
the road bed and returning to the main
channel of the river half mile or
more below. For $50 feet nothing was
left of the road bed or railroad track
and the water rushed through with ir-
resistible force. For nearly quarter
of mile OH either side the track was
rendered useless, a portion of it being
carried a number of feet from its orig
inal position, the rails being flOated
by the ties. The huge cakes of ice
and snow, in some instances five feet
or more thick and the large area of
territory covered with water and ice
presented very strange scene.
The Passumpsic management, with
characteristic energy, at once began
the work of repairing the damage
done. AS it was apparent that the
job would be long one the mail trains
were run from Wells River to SCOTS,
N. H., via the Boston, Concord and
Montreal railroad, thence over the
Boston and Lowell Vermont division
to ST. Johnsbury and vice versa.
At Passumpsic considerable damage
was done, the water being higher than
for many years. The Moore bridge,
two miles below the village on the
Passumpsic road, was moved from the
piers and tilted up so that it was found
impossible to restore it and, after re-
peated efforts to save it, the bridge
was burned Sunday afternoon to get it
out of the way. Putting up a trestle
across the 80 feet of space required
less than two days time and the first
train through from Wells River over
the Passumpsic since last week Thurs
day, came through Tuesday noon.
One or two bridges farther down the
road were more or less damaged but
were finally saved.
Large crowds of people from the
village walked down to the first wash
out Friday and Saturday, and on Sun
day the break was bridged over suffi-
GENTLY to admit of the passage of
locomotive. Meanwhile it has been
rather of curious experience for those
who have desired to get to Wells
River, 20 miles away, to go over to
SCOTS and then down the b. & L.
road, trip of 81 miles.
One of the fortunate things about the
whole business is that no one has been
injured in any way as Il result of all
this disturbance.
Our East Barnet correspondent says
that the freshet did very much damage
to the railroad bridge above that place.
The ice began to break up soon after
noon Thursday and jam struck the
bridge near the station and moved it
out of line four inches. The Lind
say bridge was uninjured, but the
Moore bridge was almost tipped over
bodily into the river. The Harvey
bridge was moved down stream about
four feet, but by Strengthening up the
rails it is considered safe for the pres
ent. The Moore bridge was burned
out of the way Sunday, a trestle put i'll
Monday and trains went over Tuesday.
The highway was impossible for teams
till Saturday above here, and on the
Waterford road the ice was not cleared
till Tuesday. JOe's brook tore up the
bridge on the river road near A. S.
Moore's but it was all saved and put
back into place.