The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-29

| are III the nOSDllal WIN injuries re-
ceived in the accident, and of these
four will surely die, one may possibly
recover, and ten altogether are for the
greater part seriously injured.
The Dead.
Charles Walpol
Edward Murray.
Frank Logan.
Stephen j. Thompson.
John Farrey.
Richard Sherman.
| Theodore Thorn.
Leroy Fenner, workman from Tole-
do o.
A. L. Norman, workman from To-
ledo.
Fatally Injured.
John Marshman, fractured skull and
fractured right leg.
]. ]. Dowd, internal injuries, both
eyes out. both legs broken.
| Peter Peliteir, right arm cut off at
shoulder. skull fractured.
John White, skull fractured, internal
injuries.
Believed to Be In Ruins.
Edward Swanson.
Joseph King.
Like a Deck of Cards.
All of the twelve arches were stand
| ing, the twelfth. and last having been
completed today. 1t was the intention
of the steel contractors, the Pittsburg
Bridge company of Pittsburg, Pa, to
turn over its work tonight TO the gen.
eral contractors. The iron traveller"
or derrick, which had been used in the
erection of the arches, had been re-
moved, and the agents of the bridge
company were accounting their work
as practically completed, when sudden
ly, and without the slightest prelimin-
airy warning, the arch last put in place
suddenly fell over against the one next
to it.
The weight was too much for this
it gave way, crashing against the third.
and, one by one. the great steel spans
fell over to the south. precisely in the
same manner as a number of cards
would fall.
Nearly all the men who were killed
were at work ON top of the arches,
forty feet above the ground. Some of
them made futile attempts to slide
down the side of the arches, but be-
fore they could help themselves they
We're hurled to the ground.
Many of them uttered piercing shrieks
for aid as they fell. Most of them were
killed outright by the awful nature of
their injuries.
Skulls of Victims Crushed.
The skulls of the unfortunate men
were crushed into shapeless masses,
their limbs were cut off as if by mon
ster knife. and they were mangled be-
yond recognition. The immense struc-
ture began falling slowly, each arch be-
ing sustained by the cross-beams sup
porting the entire structure. AS the
mass gained impetus the, bars of iron.
inches thick. snapped with a loud re-
port and the great mass moved faster
and faster in its descent. To the
ground with crash that was heard
blocks distant the structure fell, leav-
ing the walls practically uninjured, and
sending up great clouds of dust and
dirt.
An immense crowd gathered around
the place, and despite the efforts of
the police, who were close at hand. they
Swarmed over the mass of wreckage
making desperate, but ill-directed, eff
forts to drag out the dead and TO save
the wounded. 1t was only with the
greatest difficulty that the police were
finally able TO drive back the crowd
and give the firemen and uninjured
workmen Il chance 10 rescue the in
jured.
That more men were not killed and
injured was almost d miracle. Fully |
fifty men were at work in the space /
covered by the arches as they fell A
number of the men fell into small ex- |
cavations, of which there are many in 1
the ground beneath the steel works. /
and although some .were battered up !
by the tumble. these were saved from /
the great masses of steel that crashed |
down over them.
Many Narrow Escapes.
Several of them were standing under
the arches when they commenced 10
fall, and, running to the side walls. by
great good fortune, happened TO stand |
in the space left vacant by the curve
of the arches away from the side walls.
Had the arches fallen to either side
the loss of life must have been much
heavier, but they fell true to the south
on line parallel TO the side of the
building, and none of them save the
two southern arches fell at all outside
Of the space to be occupied by the
building.
The direct cause of the accident is
not known. One theory which receives
some support is that a shifting of sand
beneath the foupdation caused the col
apse of the first arch, which brought
all the others to the ground A story
which cannot be substantiated is that a
number of workmen were using a pull
ey on the north arch, while they were
taking down some scaffolding that had
been erected around it. They caused
he arch to sway and finally il swayed
90 far and fell ont /