The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-09-11
Collapsed When Being HOisted
Into Place.
Ninety Men Thrown Into Rivers
Deathlist May Be 25.
LARGEST BRIDGE IN WORLD
Structure Costing S17,O00,000
Built by Railroads.
Bridge Collapsed in 1907 Cost
Seventy Lives.

Quebec, Sept. 1.-THE central span
of the worlds greatest bridge col
lapsed and fell into the st. Lawrence
river at 10 O'Clock today with q loss
of life variously estimated as high as
twenty-five. The company erecting
the structure placed the number of
deaths at this figure, but H. P. Bor-
| den, a member of the Quebec bridge
commission declared that only three
persons were lost. Several hours after
the accident happened, special train
| into Quebec brought twenty men who
had been injured.
| Nine years ago, a similar accident
at the same spot took toll of seventy
| lives.
| Today ninety men were carried into
the river when the $40 foot 5,000-tori
| span being raised from pontoons in
| an engineering feat designed to COM
plete the $17.000,00O cantilever sus-
pension bridge for transcontinenta1
railways traffice, fell fifteen feet into
| the water and sank 200 feet, perhaps
never to be recovered.
| Contradictory stories were told re-
garding the collapse. The pontoons
had been removed and the span was
| being lifted by massive hydraulic
| jacks. when, according to some of the
| spectators, the northern end fell with
| the breaking of girders. Frantic ef-
forts were made to place a chain rope
| around the tottering structure but
with reports like shells exploding the
remaining supports snapped and the
span disappeared with a tremendous
splash. Some of the observers said the
| structure also buckled at the center as
| 1t fell. Groups of men at work slipped
OFF into the water and others were
| knocked off by flying debris. Scores
| n fai
the rescue and their endeavors pre-
vented larger loss of life.
Ninety Men on When 1t Fell.
The collapse occurred when the
span was about fifteen feet in the
air. Early indications were that the
loss of life would be heavy for there
| were ninety men on the structure
when it fell Some of these have been
rescued. Boats from among the hun-
dreds of craft on which spectators had
gathered were rushed to the spot
| where the span disappeared THE
fallen structure sank 200 feet to the
| bottom of the river, and engineers
! who witnessed the collapse expressed
! doubts as to whether it would ever be
| brought up again.
First Structure Collapsed.
Later Canadian engineers obtained
a charter and, after many years of
delay, the building was begun. onlv
to terminate in the collapse of the
unfinished structure in 1907
Canada's federal railway department
then decided to reconstruct it, and
| placed the undertaking in the hands
of commission which included sew
eral noted American bridge builders
among them Ralph Modjeski, of Chi
cago, and c. c. Schneider, of New
| York.
The plans for the bridge provided
for a channel span longer than that
OF any existing today anywhere Its
contemplated length from shore to
shore was 3,239 feet. with a distance
of 1900 feet between anchor but
tresses Provision was made for two
railroad tracks, two street car tracks
and two roads. 1t was to be used bv
the following railroads: Canadian
Pacific, Grand Trunk, Quebec Central
Intercolonial. Quebec and Lake ST
lContinued on Pa ara 1.rr