Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-08-29

CHICAGO, August %. Twelve steel
arches. each weighing Ihirty-three tons,
which were to have supported the SUI
perstructure of the Coliseum building
in course of erection, on Wabash ave-
nue.. between Fifteenth and Sixteenth
! streets, fell to the ground late this al
ternoon. 1t is known that six 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 accldent'
and of these two will surely ole, one
may possibly recover and the rest are
for the greater part, seriously injured.
The dead are:
CHARLES WALPOT, crushed to death
STEPHEN j. THOMPSON, crushed TO
death
JOHN FAY, head crushed.
RICHARD SHERMAN, head cut on.
EDWARD MURRAY, head and Doth
legs cut Off.
THEODORE THORN, crushed to death.
Missing and supposed to be under
the ruins Frank Logan, Alexander
Millas, Sam Smith.
Fatally injured. John Dowd, both
legs broken, both eyes knocked out;
internal injuries. John White, cut on
head and right side; internal injuries.
Other injured: Cornelius Toomey,
head crushed, internal injuries; may
recover. Peter Pelletere, crushed ABOUT
shoulders and chest; serious. .John
Hawthorne, head cut, internal injuries
serious.
All of the twelve arches were stand
ing. the twelfth and last having been
completed to-day. 1t was the Intention
of the steel contractors, the Pittsburg
Bridge Company, Of Pittsburg, "a, To
turn over the work tonight to the
general contractors. The immense
traveller or derrick, which had been
used in the erection of the arches, had
been removed and the agents OF the
Bridge Company were accounting their
work as practically completed. when
suddenly and without the slightest
warning, the arch last put in place,
suddenly fell over against the one next
to it. The weight was too mucn 1or
this. 1t gave way, crashed against the
third, and then enc by enc the great
steel span feel over to the south, pre-
cisely in the same manner as a num-
Der 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 at
tempts to slide down the side OF the
arches, but before they could save
themselves they were 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 CT the unfortunate
men were crushed into shapeless mass
es, their limbs were cut off as If by
a monster knife, and they were mang-
led 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; bars of
iron inches thick snapped with loud
report and the great mass moved fast
er and faster in its descent. With
crash that was heard blocks distant,
the Structure fell, leaving the walls
practically uninjured.
An immense crowd gathered around
the place and despite the efforts of the
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
Z workmcn a chance to rescue the in
jured That more men were not kill
ed and injured was almost miracle.
Fully fifty men were at work in the
space covered by the arches as they
fell. The direct cause of the accident
is not known and it will probably be
several days before 1T is determined
One theory is that a shifting sand be-
meath the foundation caused the col
lapse of the first arch which brought
all the others to the ground. j. J.
Johnson, superintendent of the Pitts
burg Bridge Company, was unable to
advance any cause of the collapse Of
the structure.