Los Angeles herald., 1892-06-16
A Terrible Casualty at Gov
ington, Kentucky.
Collapse Of a Bridge in Course
Of Construction.
Sixty-Eight Men Carried Down With
the Mass of Iron.
Most of Them Crushed to Death o
Drowned-Only Few Escaped
Unipjured-The Contractors
Among the Victims.
By the Associated Press.

AauhAcy, oliu ocnub tuTNl vi uOIIOI
through the civilized world, happened
on the Licking river, between Newport
and Covington, KY, this forenoon. A
wagon and street railway bridge was in
course Of construction between the two
cities. The contractors for the iron
work were Baird Brothers of Pittsburg.
They were Andrew and Robert Baird,
and they both went down to death with
their two score or more of workmen.
The bridge was strong wrought iron
structure. The stone piers on each side
of the river were finished. The iron
works for the approaches are very mas
sive. The span between the two piers
is about 800 feet. The height OF the
truss which was to form the bridge span
between the piers, was sixty.fve feet
above the water. False work of piling
and timbers had been constructed in the
river. 9sa.
On top of this false work the con-
struction of the iron truss began, mid
way between the two piers, and work
was pushed from the middle both ways.
Five sections of the ponderous iron
work had been constructed. On top of
this was an apparatus known to bridge
men as traveller, which is used to ex-
tend Inc structure from the ends. The
traveller was full of men at 10 80 this
morniag, and some of them near the top
were nearly 100 feet above the waters Of
the Licking river.
The timbers of the false work were
beams about ten inches square, old and
weather-beaten, and had evidently been
used before. 1t was mass OF iron
weighing hundreds upon hundreds of
tons that overmatched them and
wrought the ruin and gathered
AN AwGUL HARVEST FOR DEATH.
Thirty-six men were in the traveller at
10 80 when the awful crash came, and
no one can tell how many were working
below. The crash came like bolt from
heaven; the suddenly overtaxed beams
of pine broke and crashed into the
river below, mass of ruins, under
which score of lives went out. The
debris filed the deep streem from bank
to bank. 2 : $50 = : .
People filed both shores, and the
stream was soon full of skiffs, and the
work of rescuing lives began without a
directing head. This work was kept up
all day, and is still going on. At the
hour of the accident there were few
other workmen on the bridge near the
scene, which leaves few survivors
among the victims as the only ones to
tell the story.
Bruce Thomas was working on the
bridge. He says: "The first thing 1
knew was falling. I heard no crack
ing of timbers, no outcry, only 1 knew I
was going down. I had hardly time to
think when 1 found myself on the bot
tom of the river about twenty feet from
the shore. only got bruised on the
legs saw several others that escaped,
but do not know their Names"
HEARTRENDING SCENES.
At a cottage on Thornton street, New
Port, not ECO yards from the bridge, lay
the dead bodies of John R. Roby and
his brother, William Roby. Mrs. Cath
crime Baer, the occupant of the house,
was the mother-in-law of John Roby,
who leaves wife and two children. The
two brothers were taken there to die.
Never in the house of royalty was there
more real mourning than in that house
tonight. John died first. His dying
brother said to the weeping widow:
Don't cry, Annie, John will get WE'LL"
When told that John was dead, he
said: "Then want to die, too"
Those were his last words.
In the came house was G. III. Fetters
of Ironton, Ohio. His back was injured
and his ankle crushed. He said: 'The
crash came without warning. l heard
no sound; only knew we were going
down. scrambled on to some timbers,
and some one rescued me in boat.''
SOME CURIOUS INCIDENTS.
Charles Wilkerson, whose home is in
Louisville, KY, was working on an en-
gine on the Newport approach, and was
the first one to the rescue. He says the
timbers of the false work buckled down
stream and everything went down in a
heap. Wilkerson saved the lives of
many of the wounded, and then went
diving for the dead. The first dead man
he got was James Johnson OF Havre
de Grace, Maryland. This man had
brother injured at Canova, West Vir-
ginia, who has become insane from his
injuries received while working for
Baird Bros. He had sued Baird Bros.
and was here on the bridge looking up
testimony among the men on the works.
The next man Wilkerson recovered by
diving was Andrew Baird, one the
contractors who arrived here this morn
ing and was on the bridge with his
brother inspecting the work. The Baird
Bros. were engaged on the great bridge
at Memphis and have had much expe-
rience in bridge building.
The wounded were scattered all over
the three cities, Cincinnati, Covington
and Newport. and the surgical attend
ance was prompt, efficient and amply
sufficient.
LIST OF THE VICTIMS.
There were sixty-eight persons on and
about the bridge when it fell. Follow
ing is revised list Of the killed and
missing:
Killed-C. D. Champoix, Thomas
Down, an unknown man about 40 years
old, Il. K. koby, William Alois, q. w.
Pfafenbach, Dick German, John Adams,
Frank Adounh Robopf poivd AudpaV