The San Francisco call., 1896-05-30
Rotting and Weakened Timbers
Found in the Tangle of
Wreckage.
DAMAGE SUITS WILL RESULT.
Officials Were Warned That the
Structure Was Unsafe-FuneraIs
of the Victims.


OF many victims of the Point Ellice disas-
ter, have been carried to their last resting
place at Ross Bay Cemetery. During yes
| terday and to-day, scarcely an hour passed
but that hearse went through the ceme-
terry gates, followed by grief stricken
friends of those who, like the victims were
enjoying the festivities of the celebration.
The seating capacity of the tramway-car
which plunged through the bridge Tues
day afternoon is given at forty by the rail-
road officials. 1t is said that there were at
least seventy-six people on it. Forty-one
bodies were taken from the car. Thirty
| five passengers had escaped through the
windows.
There is no doubt that the railway COM
pany or the city of Victoria will be sued
for heavy damages by the relatives of the
victims. William Grant, who lives near
the scene of the accident, says that on
Tuesday morning ne warned the city
authorities that the bridge was unsafe.
He states that he had done the same
thing on several other occasions. 1t has
been asserted that there has been a regular
inspection of the bridge several times
since it was transferred to the city by the
Provincial Government some years ago.
der the bridge when the car fell through
were killed.
The Coroner's jury met this morning
and proceeded to the scene OF the disaster.
The Jurors embarked on two launches
which took them to the wrecked bridge.
Arriving there, Mr.. Gore, deputy commits
sioner of lands and works, explained the
construction of the bridge from the plans.
The arch which fell was built on the
cantilever principle, being supported
mostly by top chords. The floor rested on
seven floor beams, which were suspended
on hangers. One of these floor beams was
found lying on the beach, the broken,
ragged end showing plainly that it had
| been rotten.
Mr.. Gore gave it as his opinion that the
breaking of this floor beam was the origi-
nal cause of the accident. 1t may not
have been caused by the car that was
| wrecked, nor yet by the one which pre-
ceded it, but those that had gone before
had weakened the timbers until, when the
heavy one came, the structure collapsed.
It was the breaking of one of those floor
beams that caused an accident at the
bridge three years ago.
| On an arch which Is still standing one
of the floor beams was plainly seen to be
rotten, one of the jurors easily thrusting
his knife into it.
Mr.. Gore does not recoIlect whether or
not the bridge was tested when 1t was
built; but in 1895 the Albion Iron Works,
| having occasion to cart a load OF iron
weighing fifty tons to Esquimalt, asked
the city whether it was safe to take it
across the bridge. The city officials re-
| piled If they did so they must do it at their
own risk. The company sent its engineer
to test the structure and he declared it to
be safe. So the heavy load OF iron, drawn
by eight horses, was carried across the
bridge and without any disaster.
Mr.. Lockwood, the Seattle agent for the
San Francisco Bridge Company, the
builders of the bridge, was present this
morning on behalf of his company.
On their return from the bridge the jury
was dismissed for lunch, being ordered to
meet again at 80 p N. at the City Hall.
AT that hour the inquest was resumed.
Street Superintendent James Wilson was
the first witness called. He said that he
had been driving beside the ill-fated car.
The car stopped at the end of the Rock
Bay bridge to take on more passengers,
and he had passed it in order to see If the
bridge could stand the strain. The pre-
ceding car was just getting off the second
span when he came to the bridge.
He drove on slowly, watching over the
| head truss. When he first had an intima-
ton of the accident he was three parts
over the span which fell. He first heard
sound as if tim Der was crushing. the
sound getting gradually louder. Then the
! structure began to give way, beginning at
the end nearest the city. Then it fell off
the sill, and all toppled over into the
water.
The witness said that he had been Street
| Superintendent for two years, but had
never taken hold of bridges until recently.
He had received official notice to do so
few days ago.
Mr.. Cox, who had ch arge of the bridges
and sidewalks, had said in his annual re-
port at the end of last year: "That Point
ElIice bridge is in good condition"
| G. T. w. Piper, the last witness for the
day, told how. the night before the acci-
dent, he and his son had passed under the
bridge and were attracted by creaking and
groaning. at one particular spot, fifteen
or sixteen feet from the city end, it moved
so much that he told his son to hurry up
for fear it would come down on them. He
took no steps to report to the city author
tiles, for if he had they would only have
laughed at him.
"Do you mean to say you thought the
bridge was in dangerous condition and
did not take steps to report it ?" asked the
Coroner.
The witness said he had spoken of it
often and so had Captain Grant, put he
knew it was no use reporting to the city
authorities, as they would have paid no
attention to him.
The Coroner refused to take any more OF
this witness evidence and dismissed him
abruptly, saying that the evidence of a
man such as the witness, by bis own
words, showed himself to be was not
worth anything.
1t was incredible that man could see a
bridge in what he considered dangerous
condition and not report it.
A petition is jp cireulation to.dav and