Evening journal., 1911-07-24
BRIDGE FALLS
As TRAIN NEARS
Freight Crashes Into Wrecked
Structure at PaChaI-Ex-
press Narrowly Escapes
PENNSY USES B. 6 0.
TRACKS TO WILMINGTON

The old Mud Lane bridge, an ancient
wooden structure over the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad tracks at Paschal and
Glenmore avenues, short distance
from Paschal Station, Philadelphia.
collapsed of it own weight last night.
A freight train coming along a few
minutes later ploughed through the
wreckage, and portions of the train
were badly damaged. The New York
Express was due i'm six minutes after
the freight trains plunge into the
debris, and a flagman saved the lives
of the passengers by dashing along
the tracks more than a hundred feet
in the dark to warn the engineer Of
the impending danger. His signal
brought the fast express to stop
thirty feet from the wreckage.
Boys Narrow Escape.
No one was injured. Two automo-
biles apd a team of horses passed
over the frame bridge shortly before
the timbers were heard to creak and
then crumble into a pile Of debris,
thirty feet below. A small boy, John
Collins, was on the bridge at 10
o'clock, when he heard the structure
crack in the center. He ran to the
other side, a distance of one hundred
feet, and just as he landed on the
embankment, which supports the left
side of the structure, the bridge fell.
All traffic was tied up until an early
hour this morning. No LOCAL trains
were run between Philadelphia and
| Wilmington for many hours, and all
Southern passenger trains were run
over the Baltimore and Ohio tracks
to Wilmington, where the trains were
switched back to the Pennsylvania
tracks.
The Mud Lane bridge crosses what
is known as the Maryland division of
/ the Pennsylvania Railroad. The
structure was erected many years age
and was composed entirely of wood
Two piers. one on each side of the
four-tracked roadbed. support the
bridge which is $50 feet from end tc
end. Railroad men have many times
declared the bridge to be unsafe botl
to railroad and street traffic. Las
week orders were given to repair th'
structure. and piles of new lumbe
} were piled high IN readiness for
complete ovorhauling beginning 70
day
The section in which the bridge il
! located is not greatly Travelled at
night time, and this fact is response
BILE for the wreck Of the freight train
following the collapse. The train was
being driven by J. NJ. Gillian. The
road was dark and he failed to sec
the pile of black wood stretched across
the roadbcd. Going at a rate OF about
twenty miles an hour, the freight
train ploughed into the wreckage
dragging logs and beams a distance
of fifty feet. Box cars were damaged
to a great extent
lFIagman Saves Express.
The fiagman OF the freight train re-
membered that the New York ex-
press was due along about the time
and pulled out his watch to see how
much time he had to flag the oncom
ing train The watch said six min
utes. and hurtling over masses oi
wrecked bridgewood. the man dashed
up the tracks, lamp in hand, to make
as much time on the express as pos
sible. At a distance of about two hun
dred yards from the wreck the engi
neer received the signal to stop, an6
he pulled tho brakes so that the train
stopped with a severe jolt thirty fee
from the fallen bridge. The enginee
Of the passenger train is ]. Il. Mur
ply. He received the thanks of th'
passengers, many of whom left thl
train and took trolley cars to the cen
ter OF the city. The fagman, but 70
, whose presence of mind the trail
,, , might have been badly wrecked, lef
! 1.-The scene His name could not b.
lascertained.