Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-01-17
FELL NTOTHE NIAGARA RIVER
THE SUSPENSION FOOT-BRIDGE BLOWN
DOwN-NOTHTNG OF IT LEFT But
THE TOWERS AND MANY
TWISTED CABLES.

TWISTED CABLES.
New York Tines, January 10.
The storm of last night outdid any
thing of the kind ever known in this
section since the establishment of the
Signal Service. The wind reached a
a maximum velocity in this city of a
miles an hour during the early morning
hours. 1t swept up the Niagara Gulf,
over which hung two suspension bridg-
es and the wonderful cantilever, with
such terrible force as to tear to pieces
the upper suspension bridge at Niagara
| Falls-the bridge known as the foot, or
exclusively passenger, bridge and caus-
ed loss of $4,000.
When the people of Niagara Falls
went to look for the bridge this morn
ing they saw the towers, the supporting
| cables, and numberlesS twisted and
broken suspending cables, but that was
ALL The bridge itself was entirely gone
except a piece about ten feet long,
which projected from the American
side. At the foot of the cliff was an
other piece of roadway, probably 80 feet
long, and at the foot of the Canadian
cliff was section, perhaps 60 feet long,
turned upside down. 1t looked as much
like gang-plank as anything else. The
remainder of the bridge, some 1900 feet,
had disappeared, and is probably resting
in the bottom of the river, which, at this
point, is 100 feet deep.
1t was about o'clock, it is thought,
when the bridge went down. The wind,
al .er midnight, shifted to the southwest,
and its full force struck the bridge broad
side. Occasionally noise could be
heard like the swapping of .twigs, which
was probably the breaking of the short
suspension cables which held the body
of the bridge to the main or supporting
cables. Between and 3 o'clock the
wind increased and the air was filled
with snow, so'that one could see but
few feet. 1t was then the shore ends of
the bridge gave way.
Fortunately no one was abroad at
that hour, but the last man across had
an experience which he does not care to
go through again. DR.. J. NJ. Hodge, of
Niagara Falls, n. Y, started across the
bridge about midnight on his return
from visiting patient on the Canadian
side. Believing the bridge to be per-
fectly safe, he started without any fear.
When but a short distance from the
Canadian side he realized that some
thing was wrong. As he neared the
center he was obliged to get down on
his hands and knees and creep along.
At times he did not dare to move. The
bridge, he says, rocked like a boat in a
heavy sea, and at times it seemed to tip
up almost on its very edge. Not for an
instant did the Doctor dare to let go the
iron railing, but he found several places
where it was bent so that he was oblig-
ed to feel his way around.
There was no light on the bridge, the
night was very dark, and, to add still
further to his discontinue, great vol
umes of spray from the falls swept over
the bridge, drenching him to the skin.
The wind actually tore the struggling
physicians overcoat open. At that
hour evidently the shore guys were
broken, for the Doctor could hear them
Topping, and the bridge must have first
begun to give away about that time.