The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-09-05
GREAT STEEL BRIDGE
FALLS, KILLING MANY
Collapse Of New Structure Across
st. Lawrence at Quebec.
ACCIDENT AT QUITTING TIME
Workmen Were Caught in the Grin
of Steel Cages and Held Under
the Water to Drown-No Assist.
ance Was Possible.


Quebec, Canada section of the
new bridge across the st. Lawrence
River, five miles below this city, COL
Iapsed, carrying scores of bridge
workers and mechanism into the water.
It is estimated that the loss of life is
at least eighty.
The bridge was about a mile and a
half in length, and half of it, from the
south shore to midstream, crumpled
up and dropped into the water. Nine
ty-tWo men were at work on this Sec
ton of the structure, and the whistle
had just blown at $50 p. m. for the
men to quit work for the day when
there came a grinding sound from the
bridge at midstream. The men turned
to see what had happened, and an in
slant later the cry went up, "The
bridge is falling"
The men made a rush shoreward.
but the distance was too great for
them to escape. The fallen section of
the bridge dragged others after it.
the swapping girders and cables BOOM
ing like a crash of artillery.
Terror lent feetness to the feet Of
the frightened workmen as they sped
shoreward, but only a few of them
reached safety before the last piece of
ironwork on the south shore was
dragged into the river.
Near the shore the wreekage of the
bridge did not go below the surface
of the water and eight workmen who
remained above water were rescued
and taken to the hospital at Lewis.
The steamer Glenmont. had Just
cleared the bridge when the first Sec
ton fell. The water thrown up by
the debris came over the bridge of the
steamer. The captain at once low
cred boats.
The small boats piled backward
and. forward over the sunken wreck
age for half an hour, but there was
no sign of life. The twisted iron
and steel had it's victims in a terrible
death grip. A few floating timbers
and the broken strands of the bridge
toward the north shore were the only
signs that anything unusual had hap
pened.
All the men drowned were IN
ployes of the PhoenixVille Bridge
Company, of Pennsylvania, and sub
contractors of Quebec and Montreal.
At 10 O'Clock that night sixteen
bodies had been picked up, and of the
men in the Lewis Hospital two were
found to be. fatally injured.
The Quebec Bridge was begun
about seven years ago and it was to
be finished in 1909. Subsidies had
been granted by the Federal and Pro-
vincial Governments and the city OF
Quebec, and the estimated cost OF the
work was $10,000,000.
The southern extension Of the
bridge. which collapsed, was rapidly
nearing the zenith of the immense
steel arch which was to span the
river. For 500 feet from the shore
the massive steel structure rose, with
no supports save the piers, from the
shore and one pier in the river about
$50 feet from the shore, while the
outward extremity was $50 feet above
the water.
The end of the half arch bent down
a trile, and a moment later the whole
enormous fabric began to- give way,
slowly at first, then with a terrible
crash which wa plainly heard in
Quebec, and which shook the whole
countryside so that the Inhabitants
rushed out of their houses, thinking
that an earthquake had occurred.
The horror of the situation was in
creased by the fact that there were
a number of wounded men pinned in
the wreckage near the shore. Their
groans could be heard by the anxious
crowds waiting at the waters edge,
but nothing could be done to rescue
them or relieve their sufferings.
There were no searchlights available,
and by the feeble light of lanterns
it was impossible even to locate some
of the sufferers.