The Paducah sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1898-1906, 1903-07-06
ONE LIFE WAS LOST
Man Went Down in Burned
Bridge at Gilbertsville.
The Damage to the Railroad Will be
Considerable Before Traffic
Is Resumed.
MANY CREWS HARD AT WORK

The burning of one span of Tennes-
see river bridge, on the Louisville
division Of the |. @. Saturday, rs ex-
clusively published in The Sun, has
caused a standstill of freight traffic on
the Louisville and Memphis divisions
Of the road and both night passenger
trains have been discontinued indefin.
itely.
Fuller details of the burning Of the
bridge show that the conflagration
was caused by sparks from an engine
igniting some bird nests in the wood
work and was not discovered until the
flames had gained good Roadway. The
only practical means Of fighting the
fire was with buckets of water taken
from several barrels stationed along
the bridge. A member of Roadmaster
Russell's gang was ON the span when
it fell and was drowned in the river
fifty feet below the bridge. All others
who were assisting in the fight against
the flames escaped.
AS soon as news of the accident was
received here the fsst passenger train
No. 1902, from Memphis to Louisville
was sent to Louisville via Milan
Tenn, to Guthrie. to Nortonville,
KY, over the L. and N. road, but yes
terdsy all trains were brought through
and the passengers, baggage and mai
transferred by the steamer Lulu War
rem secured temporarily to do thi:
work. The two night trains. Nos.
l05 and 1903, have been discontinued,
as transferring at night is too danger
Gus. Yesterday all trains were late
from the east, but are running today
on better time.
When the news reached Chicago
several officials started TO the scene
and those who are there today are
Roadmaster j. N, Russell, Superin.
tendent A. Philbrick, of the Louisville
division of the road G.. NJ. Dugan,
superintendent of telegraph Of the l.
O.; W. j. Harahap, assistant general
manager; Chief Engineer II. U. Wal.
Lace. The officers are there to see the
work pushed and this morning Diver
John Patrick Of this city was taken to
the scene with his diving apparatus to
work with the bridge crew in setting
piling. Patrick was few hundred
feet below the bridge when the fire
was discovered and saw the entire oc.
currenoe. He WAS on a tie boat.
Yesterday and today several trains
were sent to the scene with material
for repairing and there are at least q
dozen trains there with supplies.
the bridge gang is putting in piling
and no new span will be put in until
trains have been enabled to run over
the bridge. There is some talk OF
building an iron one, as this has been
in use since 1878. The span that
burned and fell was north of the draw
and was nearly in the center of the
bridge.
There are about eight bridge gangs
ON the Job and all are working rs fast
as they possibly can. Piling was
taken to the bridge yesterday and the
men will have to splice the poles be.
fore they can be used, the bridge being
fifty feet above water and nearly that
deep under it.
Freight traffic on these two divisions
of the road has been suspended and no
freight is taken out or received unless
IL is billed direct to or from Psducah
that going from Paduo being billed
via southern divisions.
~ 1t would be hard to estimate the loss
TO the railroad company. That to the
bridge itself is small in comparison to
the loss of business, the hauling OF
other business in a roundabout way
over other lines and the great delay tc
passen gers, freight, express and mail.
It is said $40, 900 will be spent in tenn
porary repairs TO get the trains started
and that 100000 would be . small
estimate for the total damage to bust
ness.
The mails are coming ip1N Pas "a
| verv irra0ularlv. he ~ NM