The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-08-06
ON THE BRo0KLYS BRIDGE.
A Frlghtful Crush oi travel Yesterday
 HnNv it HauNeneu.

Fnghtful Crush oi travel Yesterday How 1t Happened. New York. Aug. 5.-There was a great
 crush of people at Brooklyn bridge to- day, and 1t was owing to the fact that
 the cars were not running, the contrae-
 tor not having got through with his
 work as early as he calculated, owing to yesterdays storm, which prevented his
 men from working
 The new terminals at each end were about to be opened. It was the original
 plan of Chief Engineer Martin to have
 the new terminals in operation this
 morning. With that end in view he kept the men employed on the work busily engaged all Saturday night. He
 intended to have gangs of men working lall day yesterday and last night, and, according to his calculations, had plen- | ty of time in which to have everything l in readiness to handle the usual volume
 of traffic in the usual way this morn- | ing.
 There was one thing MT. Martin didn't
 count on, however, and that was delay because of bad weather. At any rate,
 the engineer didn't count on such a
 storm as We had yesterday. | The work was progressing rapidly yesterday when the storm came up. It
 became so bad that the men could not
 continue at work, and so operations
 were suspended until the storm ended,
 The result of that was delay this
 morning that has been the worst In the history of the bridge.
 There have been many delays in run
 ming the cars during the rush hours tha1 | have caused considerable crushing and
 much discomfort, but never before was there any such time as was experienced | this morning.
 | It began in the early hours and with | the first of the flood tide which sets to- | ward New York every morning. Dur | ing the early morning train consist ! ing of three cars and drawn by an en-
 zine was run at infrequent intervals, 1 It had been the intention of the chief engineer to have trains running on both tracks, but he considered the danger of | passengers being struck by bolts and pieces of iron that might be dropped by I the workmen so great as to decide to rum trains on one track only. The ca ble was not used.
 When the first of the heavy traffic be- gan, at about 6 o'clock this morning, three car trains were run at intervals of fifteen minutes, and were really noth- | ing more than an aggravation. | ay,fJo xxyfcl l,aI +p rH aaah frl in where there was room for but one. The result was a frightful crush in and about the Brooklyn entrances to the bridge. Hats were knocked away and clothing torn in some of the crushes. The awful crowding immediately
 made the cars so hot that passengers
 were almost overcome.
 | In more than one instance they be
 came alarmed and tried to get out of the cars, but were wedged in so tightly that all effort in that direction was so much effort wasted.
 At ' o'clock, when the travel was heaviest, the jam extended for a block from the terminus of the bridge in | Brooklyn.
 The north driveway was turned into | a promenade. The regular promenade
 was closed.
 | A conservative estimate of the per sons who walked across the north drive
 way this morning places the number at 100000.
 | They poured off the bridge in a steady
 stream. Looking out from this end If
 the structure 1t seemed as if the drive
 way was so tightly packed with human | ity that there was not an inch of space
 between the pedestrians. l That constant stream poured into
 Park Row without any interruptions for
 almost two hours. Then it began t almost two hours. Then it began to
 abate, and along about g o'clock one
 could walk across the bridge with some
 degree of comfort though there was still
 a good deal of a jam at the Brooklyn l lentrance.
 | The trouble was all over late in the Iafternoon, and travel on the bridge TO- sumed its normal state.