Perth Amboy evening news., 1910-09-12
Uniform MORE
MEN IN TUNNEL.
Missing Employees May Add
TO Death listin Bergen
Cave-ln.
RECOVER ELEVEN BODIES

Jersey City, N. j., Sept. 12.-The
work of removing the debris from the
mouth of the old Bergen tunnel on the
Erie railroad, where yesterdays tdisas-
Ter occurred, is today being pressed as
rapidly as possible in the expectation
mat the bodies Of more victims will be
found.
Under hundreds Of tons of rock that
crashed down on to the abandoned
tracks nine men were crushed to
death, two others were so injured they
died within a few hours and ten re-
cefved serious hurts. Forty-eight hours
probably will elapse before the mass
OF debris can be cleared away and
perhaps eight others lie dead beneath
It.
George Bloss, foreman of the gang
caught In the ~cave-in, was arrested
on a charge of criminal negligence and
manslaughter. He is In the City hos
pltal with both legs crushed.
The wrecking of the tunnel mouth
was the last work that remained to be
done before the new Bergen cut of
the Erie was completed. The new cut
mas been used for a month, in fact,
but a fourth track is to be laid, the
end of the tunnel and the shoulder of
the cliff through which the tunnef ran
blocking the way. The removal Of
about sixty feet of the tunnel and of
a section of the cliff was begun a week
a pn i,tgf rUbnpn H. la 4....-t - -
new cut converge at a sharp angle.
One section OF the tunnel, about thir
ty feet long and about thirty feet back
from the mouth, was blasted down last
week. Along the cliff face and along
a high, narrow ridge of rock between
the tunnel and the cut, blasting has
been going On since the tunnel was
laid open, some of the rock falling of
Its w weight. but more of it hanging
loosely high above the litter that GOV
cred the tunnel tracks to a depth of
ten or fifteen feet.
Yesterday morning a gang of forty
three men was set to work to clear
the opened space, the eight drills that
have been In use on the rock lying idle
over Sunday. Part of the men loaded
scale boxes" platforms about six feet
square with three sides to them and
swung up and down by derricks on
the cliff, seventy feet above.
The rest of the men were at work
with crowbArs prying loose the pieces
of rock that had been blasted free on
either side of the tracks. The gang
was In charge of A. l.. MoOrhead, en-
gineer Of the eastern division OF the
Erie, the railroad company having
taken over this part of the work from
the Maillard Construction company of
Philadelphia, which built the new cut.
1t win probably lever be known ex-
actly what happened. but at about
half past 10 the men at work on the
ground sought shelter In the tunnel
while the "crowbar gang" made ready
to send the rock they had loosened
rolling down. Just as the word was
passed along to start this a piece of
the cliff shoulder forty feet long and
at least thirty feet high broke away
with q thunderous roar and crashed
down on to the still standing section
Of the tunnel.
The men who had sought safety
there were buried twenty feet deep.
Al least a dozen Of the men who had
been working on the cliff face were
carried along with the avalanche, and
Of the entire company not more than
ten, so far az could be learned by the
| - e;ninl, N. ahla 10 holI tlnpnroIroo
clear of the rending rock.
These fed for their lives, some back
into the tunnel on the other side Of
the slip, some along the new tracks
and some up the cliff itself.
Fully $4,000 persons watched the
work of rescue. Along Hudson boule-
ward, which skirts the very opening Of
the new cut; along the Erie tracks
from the boulevard to the bridge by
which the Lackawanna tracks cross
those of the Erie and on every van
tage point along the top of the cliff
cident spectators gathered, many of
them having left neighboring churches
to follow the changing ambulances and
patrol wagons.
The work Of rescue was spectacular
A. hundred men were rushed into the
narrow cut within half an hour, q
steam shovel was set to work on the
outer edge Of the debris and a shifting
engine ran back and forth beside IT.
dragging huge rocks away at the end
Of a wire cable.
AS the bodies were uncovered they
were lifted on to the scale boxes" and
hoisted to the top of the cliff, two
surgeons and a priest accompanying
each to a tool shanty, where 1t was
laid until 1t could be taken to the
morgue. The injured were carried UP
In the same way to the waiting ambu.
lances.
Early in the afternoon the surgeons
were CHASTITY figures. Blood appeared
on their white suits and faces, and by
the time they were able to quit WORT
for a time they were drenched from
head to foot. and even their hair wal
matted with blood and dirt.
.