New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-09-10
TRAIN THROUGH BRIDGE.
WRECKERS KILL FOUR.
Thirty-fue Hurt = Second Train
Pitches on First.

Portsmouth. Va, Sept. 9.-Shortly after
o'clock this morning train No Al on the Sea-
board Air Line, consisting OF an express car,
mail car, two day coaches and Pullman
sleeper was thrown from a trestle just south
OF the Catawga River, s. c.. and twenty-five
miles southwest OF Monroe. N c.. and this was
followed by the wreck of a light engine and
caboose the two accidents resulting in the death
of four persons and the injury OF thirty-fve
others.
The killed:
nARKsDALE E. Y. engineer Abbsvirs. g. c.
RoRERTs. 5 Edward fireman Ccolored,. Atlanta. Ga
Unknown woman
The injured:
nASKs E4SaSd Asa,n: Ca back injured IA. .ns
HERBERT Mrs sidney. Maitland Fla foot amVua''d'
H1NsoN g w. -Ienor, Ga; Jaw injured
JEROME Mrs T. Atlanta shoulder and hssf injsTee e
head and shoulders injured
sILVEY. Mrs Jerome. Atlanta; bruised.
The other injured were only slightly hurt. I'm
mediately on the receipt of the news OF the
accident a special train with wreckng OUTFIT and
doctors started from Monroe to the scene Of the
wreck. and the dead and injured brought
back 20 Monroe.
The wrecked train was running about forty
miles an hour when the trestle which is about
three hundred feet long, spanning meadow
near the Catawba River. gave way. The en-
CINE and some OF the cars passed over. but were
drawn backward into the abyss and upon the
other cars. To add TO the disaster. light en-
CINE and cahoose before they could be tagged
ran on top or the wreckage.
CASTOR Mears. the engineer OF the passenger
train, escaped with some bruises and a painful
scalp wound. How he escaped death is beyond
his own or any one eses comprehension. He
said that he was driving at the rate OF forty
miles an hour as he crossed the bridge. Just
before the engine had swept entirely clear OF the
structure he felt IL sinking. but the impetus
carried the engine and all the cars. except the
first class passenger car and the Pullman. over
and clear OF the yawning gulf which was left
when half the bridge collapsed. but the engine
and cars were swerved from their course 10 the
right tearing the rail loose from It's fastenings
and hurting the entire train upside down over
an embankment 10 the meadow. about thirty
feet below.
The accounts OF the survivors are terrible
When the train went crashing over the embank
ment every light went out. passengers were
thrown heads over heels against the sides Of the
coaches bleeding and bruised. Some were rem
dered unconscious. Mrs Black. sitting with her
husband. gave short cry and when the latter
managed to strike a match and find her body
he discovered that she was dead. her neck hav-
ing been broken. She the only passenger
killed, hurt seriously.
AS the scrambllng and shouting went on in
the dark, above the noises a brakeman. with
his head half way out of a window. was heard
TO shout:
my God the freight train Is coming upon
usr'
In less than a minute the freight engine
which had left Monroe fifteen minutes behind
the passenger train, struck the open space
where the bridge had fallen and plunged its way
through the passenger cars. The woman whose
identity could not be discovered then met her
death the freight engine having crashed through
the side OF the car in which she was.
The engineer of the freight train must have
met hts death instantly. When his body was
dug out of the debris this morning his watch
was still running. His fireman escaped with a
few minor injuries.
Mr. Black whose wife was killed beside him.
was the last to leave the coaches. and the
first thing he did to walk in his bruised
condition 70 Catawba Junction, two miles away
and send a telegram to Monroe for help. Mr..
Black is a telegraph operator in the service Of
the Norfolk and Western Railway, and was go
ing to Atlanta with his wife to testify there IN
a railroad suit
Railroad men said to-day that they had never
seen such q complete demolshment of engines
and coaches as was made by the wreck. 1t will
take some days to get the line in passable con-
dition though the trains scattered to the
side of the tracks and in the ravine into which
the bridge fell.
George S. Fitzwater chief detective of the Sea-
board Air Line, said this afternoon that he had
found some spikes and bolts and two angle bars
which had been removed from the track with
claw bars and he confident that criminal
work had been DONE He expressed the belief
that some one had disconnected the joints in
the lower half OF the bridge.