Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1904-04-01
WEST RIVER ON RAMPAGE
ICE TEARS DOWN ONE BRIDGE
AND PORTION OF DAM.
Damage viii Amount to More Than
$50.000-Part Of the Gaslight Com.
pany's West Dummerston Power
House DESTROYED,

With n rush like that OF tlda
wave the winters accumulation Of ics
came out of West river Saturday
tearing TO shreds large portion OF
the woodwork OF the Brattleboro Gas
light eompany's dam and rendering
that structure useless for months "a
come. crumbling into fragments one of
the piers of the narrow gauge rail-
road bridge az West Dummerston and
thereby severing railroad eommunica-
tion between Brattleboro and the
northwestern part OF Windham coun-
ty, and finally pouring into the Con-
necticut In a mighty wall nearly 20
feet high. Never has the West river
cleared itself i'm more spectacular
manner and never has 1t succeeded
in working such havoc II is safe TO
estimate that the damage will amount
to $4,000. Several people along the
line of the flood narrowly escaped los
ing their lives but no one was injured
+ The warm weather and rain of the
latter part Of last week had its effect
on th. small streams which feed West
river al it's upper portions and by FRI
day night conditions became alarm
ing During the night the ice at the
upper end Of the river began TO break
up and start down stream, and AT
O'Clock Saturday morning IL had
formed i'm an immense jam at Towns
hend. flooding all the meadows in that
section and covering them with large
ice cakes. Very soon, however, the
force of the rising water started the
lam and IL began TO move down
stream slowly at first but with in
creasing speed as II gained I'm weight
and momentum. A few minutes be-
fore noon the employees of the power
station al the gaslight company's dam
a short distance above West Dunn
nerston saw a solid wall of ice nearly
20 feet high bearing swiftly down
upon them. They had just begun ar
Irangements for dynamiting the ice
above the dam and in minute or two |
would have been at work. They hard |
~ had time TO reach place OF safety |
when the ice-wall reached the still |
water on which the ice lay to depth |
I'm places of nearly four feet. Immense /
cakes Weighing several tons were
hurled high in air as II they had been
chips and in a second the entire mass
was pouring over the dam, rjpping up
the woodwork and grinding the tim
bers to atoms as If they were tooth
picks,
Charles II. Thompson. who was
experimenting the work of dynamit-
ing the river. ran TO the power house
as soon as he saw the ice-wall COM
ing and telephoned the news to Brat
tleboro. Although the operation was
the work of but few seconds the ice
had already begun falling over the
dam before he had finished. He barely
reached the bank above when the
power house was surrounded by i'm
mense cakes. The north and east ,
sides OF the building were torn off and
the switchboard carried away but
none of the machinery was damaged. :
Although of unusual strength the !.
woodwork of the dam was utterly un-
able to withstand the force of the ice, :
and between eight and fifteen feet was :
torn Off the dam its entire width. !,
Much OF the timber that was not !
washed away was so badly splintered
that 1t will all have to be taken out,
and It Is probable that the work OF
repairing the structure will take sew
,ral months. II seems almost mirac- il
ilous that the power house was not p
destroyed with its entire contents and p
[ probably would have been had II ls
rot been for the protection 1t re- fl
'eived from the masonry on the south II
ide of the dam. II the woodwork had la
lot given way there is no doubt that al
he power house would have been p
rushed as the height of the ice-wall Il
WIS so great Irldt II Wpulu nave koltt tt
completely over the bulkhead. II
After doing all within its power to ii
he dam the ice continued down
tream still In a solid mass News Of 0t
Is coming reached the people of West III
and a large crowd gath br
red on the banks of the river to b,
,atch II pass, many taking places on al
he railroad bridge. 1t appeared at Ivi
he turn In the river about 1915 and az
ore rapidly down on the bridge, strik- TT
1g the abutments with fearful force. m
F. G. Rogers. who was r,
ne of the crowd of spectators. real a
led the danger to the bridge and or tn
cred everyone off the structure. His TO
'arning came not a moment too soon. m,
s soon as the ice began to pound Sc
gainst the piers the bridge began to fol
way and in exactly six minutes the an
esterly pier crumbled under the FIRE
rain. Two spans of the bridge fell CHI
Ito the river with a mighty crash,
,rrying with them 27S feet of track. o
everal people. who failed to heed =
r. Rogers's warning, narrowly es- -
lped with their lives. William But po
rfleld. an aged man, was unable to PIE
4 off the bridge before il fell and TN
as, carried 20 or 80 feet down the wh
with the falling timbers. ex'
iraculously he escaped without Sc chi
ous injury. ito
As the ice continued down stream bal
e size of the jam increased until mas
hen 1t reached the Connecticut it pla
as enormous. The highway north of wit
e Redway place was covered with pre-
, cakes for several rods and a por- fire
IN of the narrow gauge track near Th
,lden & Martins mill was sub bee
erged for time but not dana ged. OF
soon as the ice nasSed the river anC
opped Immediately leaving immense 9th
lxes high up on the banks on both mel
les vid
The loss of the railroad bridge at por
est Dummerston is a severe blow whi
the narrow gauge as II was con- ing
erred one of the strongest structures isht
the line It's total length was about and
feet and II was made of steel in mat
'ee spans supported by two piers.
height above the river was about
feet The bridge was formerly one 1,
the twin bridges" at Winooski on -,
-. no III. =. @ uas..s &c. Mar
!. Sa 49,. - ~ ,,,si,, :, plar
$ subjected at that point, and in -.
Z was sent to Brattleboro to take Iii, .,,ia
place of the old wooden bridge %a p%u,l
oss the West river at West Dunn ,.l sna
rston The piers and abutments rs
e built by the Lyons granite COM Tso
" and considered unusually
ing The spans of the bridge are ,.l 80
1se and 109 feet In length and the
two are those which were carried wi, vi
". The trusses OF the central span 1in ouiI'
into the middle Of the river and louI
e carried down stream several s,ac va
!. ~ - ~. -. - ~, ,sys- ager
- 1tr1 ~