Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-12-21

1t will take several days to recover
the bodies, as most of them are pinned
| down by the heavy iron trusses which
fell on top of the false work. The
bridge company has 100 men at work
and will extricate the bodies from the
wreckage as soon as possible.
When the second part of the false
work fell an engine and boiler went
with it, and when the boiler hit the
debris it exploded, but no one is known
to have been struck by the flying frag-
ments.
The lives of the bridge workmen
| were insured for 81 500 each.
A Perilous Occupation.
To whose doors must be laid the re-
sponsibility for the terrible disaster
will probably never be known. It is
doubtless one of those unforeseen acct
dents that occur in spite of all precau-
tionary measures. Bridge building,
proba bly, more than any other thing.
is fraught with manifold dangers, and
the workman whose labors are util-
lied in the work, practically take their
lives in their own hands.
The Cause of the Disaster.
General opinion ascribes the cause of
the disaster to the stiff wind that has
been sweeping the river all day. It
bore with great force on the ponderous
framework, which necessarily became
loosened from the constant strain and
swaying of the heavy timbers. A great
number of people, before the first span
fell, could see the great traveller"
rising eighty feet above the piers,
swaying and quivering in the wind in
what appeared to be the most alarm
ing manner to those on shore. The
motion, however, was hardly notice
able to the worlSmen, who had no idea
of their deadly peril until the great
mass of wood and iron began to sink
and the awful cracking and crashing
of the timber, smote upon their ears.
That the structure was otherwise
than safe, never occurred to the engi-
neers who were in charge, or the
workmen. Every precaution had been
employed to insure the stability of the
framework.
An Account of the Accident by a Civil
Engineer.
Mr.. Erie Manchester, civil engi-
neer, who is employed on the bridge,
had very narrow escape from death
To a reporter for the United Press, in
giving an account of the accident, he
said:
Il was standing on the span that fell
near the Kentucky side, and seeing
that it was about to fall I called to
the men to get off as soon as possible.
/ had just counted the men who were
on the span a few minutes before and
there were ffty-one in all not count
ing myself. When l called, the men
dropped their tools and ran toward
me, but only ten of them could get off.
The others went down in a heap.
was SO badly frightened that 1 could
not tell how many of them got out,
but 1 only saw one man swim to the
shore.
1.-The accident was caused by the
wind. The piling was strong enough
to bear double the weight. The
bridge fell like a pack of cards. It
became loosened on the Indiana side
first and swayed gradually across to
the other side.
1.-THE span would have been COM
pleted by this afternoon, and after the
traveller" had been fastened to the pier
there would have been no danger of
the wind or current breaking it down"
There Were Many Narrow Escapes.
But the most thrilling was that of
workman called ''Spider." who broke
the record for high jumping. He was
at the top of the huge traveller" LAG
feet from the water. He felt some
thing give way, and then saw the
whole span was falling. Placing his
hands above his head, he leaped head
long to the water. Strange to say, he
was not seriously hurt, and was car
ried toward the wreckage, where he
was rescued by two fellow workmen
who had just come from the shore.
The south channel span, about $50
feet in length, was blown down shortly
after o'clock tonight. So far as
known no one was injured. This will
entail au additional loss of $4,000.
A Unusual Sight.
One sig hit that was unusual and that
will be remembered as miraculous in
the history of the lamentable disaster,
was the presence of eighteen men, who
We're saved by being on the great stone
pier, when the iron span and its con-
Meeting timbers went down, with its
dreadful loss of human life. Here
stood this great pier, rising alone
from the water over seventy feet in
the air, with the eighteen human pris-
oners huddled together, dazed with an
fear, but saved. The
sight was unique, but terrible A rope
ladder was thrown up and the men
were rescued.
Miraculous Escapes.
John Hipsenheiger, of Port Huron,
Mich, accompanied the ''traveler" in
it's plunge. just be fore it struck the
water he rolled off and escaped I'M
Dr. d. C. Preston, of Jeffersonville,
the physician of the Phoenix Bridge
Co., as soon as the first span fell,
seized skitf and went to the assist
ance of the unfortunate men. While
the skiff was being rowed to the mass
of debris the second span, directly over
the skiff of the physician. gave way.
DR.. Preston, realizing his danger,
jumped from his skiff into the river
and was rescued unframed.
The building of the Louisville s.
Jeffersonvilie bridge has been marked
by series of disasters. No less than
fifty men have been killed and injured
in it's construction, before the present
accident. Three years ago the Masonic
savings bank, one of the largest finan-
cial concerns in the city, was wrecked
by holding too much of the bridges !
paper, and the president of both bridge |
and bank, Jacob F. Kreiger, was |