Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-03-16

the consequent cessation of the work
always affected everybody the same
way. There was inevitably and in
tween the noise and it's sudden stop
page was so great that the men in
stinctively waited a few seconds and
drew q breath before they began to
light their pipes, close their tool boxes,
pick up their coats and dinner pals,
strolled along the roadway to the
shore.
1t seemed to Abbott that it had never
been so silent on the bridge before.
There was almost always a breeze,
sometimes a gale, blowing down or up
the gorge through which the river
flowed, but that afternoon not breath
was stirring.
Abbott found himself waiting in
strained and unwonted suspense for
the next second or two, his eyes fixed
on the member. The long warm rays
clearly. In that second Immediately
below him, far down toward the pier
head he saw q sudden flash as of break
ing steel. Low, but clear enough in the
intense silence, he heard q popping
sound like the snap of great finger.
Then the bright gleam of freshly
broken metal caught his excited glance.
The lacing was giving way. Meade was
right. The member would go with it
The first pop or two was succeeded by
little rattle as of revolver shots
heard from q distance, as the lacings
gave way in quick succession. Abbott
was a man with a powerful voice and
he raised it to it's limit.
The idle workmen, just beginning to
laugh and jest. heard great cry:
"Off the bridge, for Gods sake p'
Two or three, among them Which
ings, who happened to be within few
feet of the landward end, without un-
derstanding why, but impelled by the
agony, the appeal, the horror in the
great shout of the master builder
| leaped for the shore. On the bridge
itself some stepped forward, some
stood still staring, others peered down
ward. The great siXty-foot webs OF
steel wavered like ribbons in the wind
| The bridge shook as if in an earth
| quake. There was heavy, shuddering
| swaying' movement and then the 600
foot cantilever arm plunged down
ward, as a great ship falls into the
trough of a mighty sea. Sharp-keyeC
sounds cracked out overhead as the
truss parted at the apex, the outward
half inclining to the water, the inward
half sinking straight down.
Shouts, oaths, screams rose, heart
family above the mighty bell-like re
\ QUEEN of great girders, struts and tie!
shifting other members and ringing il
the ears of the helpless men like doom
Then, with a fearful crash, with
mighty shiver, the landward half col
lapsed on the low shore, like house O
cards upon which has been laid tn
weight of q massive hand. The rive
section, carrying the greater load a
the top and torn from it's base, plunged
like an avalanche of steel, 200 fee
down into the river, throwing ia
ahead of it, as from a giant catapult
the traveller on the outward end of tn
suspended span and locomotive OF
the floor beneath.
Wilchings, and the few men safe OF
the shore, stood trembling, looking a
the bare pier head at the awful tan
gled mass of wreckage on the shor
| hot hn MI fha
beam and stringer, girder and strut
bent, twisted, broken in ragged an
horrible ruin, while the water, deepe
than the chasm it had cut, rolled it
waves smoothly over the agitations O
the great plunge beyond the pier. The
stared sick and faint at the tangled
interviewer mass of steel, ribboning i
every directiOn-fOr in the main th
rivets held so it was not any defeC
of joints, but structural weakness
the body of the members that ha
brought it down-and inclosing as
a net many bodies that few second
before had been living men.
They had seen body after body hurle
through the air from the outward en-
and, as they gazed fearfully in horrc
here and there dark figures floated I
the surface of the water. They caugl
glimpses of white, dead faces as tt
mighty current rolled them under an
swept them on. And no sound can
from the hundred and fifty who ha
gone down with the bridge. The 20
foot fall would have killed them wit
| out the smashing and battering ar
crashing of the great girders that ha
fallen upon them or driven them fro
| the floor and hurled them, crushed al
broken, into the river.
Meade had been right Abbott ht
one swift flash of acknowledgment, OF
swift moment packed with such 7
grets as might fill lifetime-an etc
| nifty in a hell of remorse-before h
| like the rest, had gone down with Il
| bridget
\ CHAPTER VII.
| For the Son.