The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-08-29
Big CHICAGO COLISEUM FALLS
NINE WORKMEN KILLED IND SEY-
ER14L OTHERS INJURED.

Twelve Steel Arches, Each Weighing
Thtrty-three Tons, Collapse-One Fell
Against the other and All Were Car
ried Down Like a Row of Cards
Pittsburg Bridge Company Had the
Contract and Their Work Was AImo ost
Completed.
Chicago, Aug. 2S.-Twelve steel arch
es, each weighing thirty-three tons,
which were to have supported the SUI
perstructure of the Coliseum building in
| course of erection on Wabash avenue,
fell TO the ground late this afternoon. 1t
is known that nine lives were crushed
out The bodies of three men are sup
| posed to be under the wreckage. Sew
en- are in the hospital with injuries re-
ceived in the accident and of these two
will surely die, one may possibly recov-
er and the rest are, for the greater part,
seriously injured. The dead are:
|
Charles Walpot, Edward Murray, Frank
Logan, Stephen ]. Thompson, John
Fairy, Richard Sherman, Theodore
Thorn, Terry Fenner, AL Norman
Fatally injured; John Markham,
fractured skull and fractured right Leg
]. j. Dowd, internal injuries, both eyes
pl1t bntI, fro l,;+
skull fractured internal injuries Miss
ing and believed to be in the ruins: Ed
ward Swanson and Joseph King. In
jured not seriously: Cornelius Toomey,
j. Fl. Warley, John Hawthorne, John
]. johnson, David Reardon, H. P. Zim-
mer, j. F'laek, j. Hanson and Andrew
Morrison.
Dead, nine; missing, two; fatally in
jured, four; injured not serious. nine.
| Allof thetwelve arches were standing,
| the twelfth 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 the work tonight to the gem
eral contractors. The immense tray
| elers' 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 fell over against
| the one next to it. The weight was too
much for it gave way, crashed against
| the third, precisely in the same manner
as number of cards would fall Near
| ly all of 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 before they could
save themselves were hurled to the
ground. Many of them uttered piercing
shrieks for aid as they fell Most of
them were killed outright.
j. ]. Johnson. superintendent of the
Pittsburg Bridge company, when inter-
viewed said. II cannot say what caus-
ed the accident. l am utterly at a loss
to account for it, / left the building
only few minutes before the whole
thing fell. We had finished putting up
the last arch and had begun taking
down the traveller upon which the
arches We're raised to be set into place.
This work was almost completed when
left the building. There remained but
one or two more beams to be removed.
Then l heard the crash and could hard
ly believe my eyes when l saw the re-
suit of our weeks of work destroyed in
a minute
The work of rebuilding will COM
mence at once, and 1t is expected that
to-day's accident will delay the open
ing of the building not more than one
month No financial loss will fall on
the Coliseum company. The Pittsburg
Bridge company's loss is estimated at
$25 900. The structure is 304 feet long
and 172 feet wide.
A singular fatality has attended all
buildings erected in Chicago and called
Coliseum. The first erected stood on
Sixty-thi street and collapsed, while
being built in 1894. All the eleven steel
arches fell to the ground, injuring no.
body, but causing loss of 100000 The
building was rebuilt and the last ma
tional democratic convention was held
within its walls. The second Coliseum
was destroyed by fire on December "a,
1897 The accident of to-day brought
down the third Coliseum.
Edward c. Shankland of e. c. & r.
NJ Shankland, the designers and super
visors of the erection of the Coliseum,
and chief engineer of the World Column
bia exposition, tonight said: "All the
arches of the Coliseum under construc-
tion We're up, and the traveller was be-
ing taken down. The longitudinal pur-
Inns, and the diagonal braces at the
south end were in places, but none of
the sub-purlins had been put in position
nor had the diagonal bracing between
the two north arches been connected
up. Had this been done before the
traveller was taken down, the accident
would not have happened
Dewey at Mice.
Nica Aue 2S-Admiral Dewey, ac-