The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-29

! ooo, aug 90 - Twelve steel
arches, each weighing SO tons, which
were to have supported the super
structure of the Coliseum building. in
course of erection, on Wabash avenue
between Fifteenth and Sixteenth
| streets fell to the ground late this af
ternoon. 1t is known that nine lives
| were crushed out. The bodies of three
men are supposed to be under the
| Wreckage. Seven are in the hospital
with injuries received in the accident,
and of these two will surely die, one
may possibly recover and the balance
are for the greater part seriously in
| jured.
Dead
CHARLES wALHOL.
| EDWARD MURRAY
| FRANK LOGAN.
| STEPHEN j. THOMPSON.
| JOHN FARREY
RICHARD SHERMAN.
THEODORE THORN.
LEROY FENNER, workman from
| Toledo Ohio
| A. l.. NORMAN, workman from To-
| ledo Ohio
Fatally injured
John Marshman, fractured skull and
| fractured right leg.
j. j. 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.
Missing and believed to be in ruins
Edward Swanson.
Joseph King.
Injured, not serious
Cornelius Toomey. j. III. Warley, John
lon I
Reardon, H. p. thinner, j. Flack j.
Hanson, Andrew Morrison.
Nine dead: missing, 2; fatally Injured
4; injured, not seriously, 10.
All of the II arches were standing,
the 18th and last having been com
pleted to-day. 1t was the intention of
| the steel contractors, the Pittsburg
Bridge company of Pittsburg, Pa, to
turn over it's 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 sud
denly and without the slightest pre-
liminary warning, the arch last put in
place suddenly fell over against the
one next to it. The weight was too
much for this, and 1t gave way, crash
ing 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 VINO We're killed
were at work on top of the arches, 40
feet above the ground. Some of them
made futile attempts to slide down the
side of the arches but before 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.
The skulls of the unfortunate men were
crushed into shapeless masses, their
limbs were cut off as if by a monster
knife, and they were mangled beyond
recognition.
The immense structure began falling
slowly, each arch being sustained by
the cross-beams supporting the entire
structure. AS the mass gained impetus
the bars of iron, inches thick. snap
ped with a loud report and the great
mass moved faster and faster in it's
descent to the ground and with a crash
that was heard blocks distant the
structure fell, leaving the walls prac-
tically 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 We're close at hand, they
swarmed over the mass of wreckage,
making desperate but ill-directed ef-
forts to drag out the dead ana save the
wounded. 1t was only with the greatest
difficulty that the police We're finally
able to drive back the crowd and give
the firemen and uninjured workmen a
chance to rescue the injured.
That more men were not killed and
injured was almost a miracle. Nearly
30 men were at work in the space COW
cred by the arches as they fell. A
number of the men fell into small eX-
caVations, of which there are many in
the ground beneath the steel works,
and although some were battered up by
the tumble, these We're saved from the
great masses of steel that crashed down
over them. Several of them were stand
ing under the arches when they COM
nenced to fall, and running to the
side walls, by great go>i fortune hap
pened 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 a line parallel to the
side of the building, and none of them
save the two southern arches fell a ?